148
devastated. Little wonder that the word gorongosa, in local languages refers to a
“place of danger.”
4
As David Quammen writes, “Back in the early 1990s, after fifteen years of civil war, with two armies treating Gorongosa as a battlefield—and
killing its wildlife for meat to feed soldiers and for ivory to buy arms—the place was
in wreckage.”
5
Then the Gregory Carr Foundation stepped in, devoted to ensuring that Gorongosa
National Park would become a jewel of globally significant conservation biology
for Mozambique. Indeed, in 2018, not a single snare was found in the park. It had
become not only a lifeline for native and much endemic wildlife, but a parallel oasis
for surrounding human locals. Yet, biogeographical size matters for the sustained
populations of diverse species into the future. Gorongosa is modest in proportions,
at 1456 mi
2
; just slightly larger than Yosemite National Park at 1169 mi
2
. By comparison, 45 other national parks across the African continent are larger, beginning
with Namibia’s 32,818 mi
2
Mudumu National Park, Tanzania’s 21,235 mi
2
Selous
Game Reserve, and Botswana’s 20,077 mi
2
Central Kalahari Game Reserve. A
small national park translates at once into the problem of habitat constraints for large
4 See A Window On Eternity – A Biologist’s Walk Through Gorongosa National Park, by E. O.
Wilson, Photographs by Piotr Naskrecki, Simon & Schuster, New York, N.Y., 2014, p. 6.
5 “Devastated by war, this African park’s wildlife is now thriving,” by David Quammen, National
Geographic, December 13, 2018.
Fig. 17.1 School outing at the Museu De Historia Natural de Maputo. (Photo © M.C. Tobias)
17 The Echoes of Malhazine
devastated. Little wonder that the word gorongosa, in local languages refers to a
“place of danger.”
4
As David Quammen writes, “Back in the early 1990s, after fifteen years of civil war, with two armies treating Gorongosa as a battlefield—and
killing its wildlife for meat to feed soldiers and for ivory to buy arms—the place was
in wreckage.”
5
Then the Gregory Carr Foundation stepped in, devoted to ensuring that Gorongosa
National Park would become a jewel of globally significant conservation biology
for Mozambique. Indeed, in 2018, not a single snare was found in the park. It had
become not only a lifeline for native and much endemic wildlife, but a parallel oasis
for surrounding human locals. Yet, biogeographical size matters for the sustained
populations of diverse species into the future. Gorongosa is modest in proportions,
at 1456 mi
2
; just slightly larger than Yosemite National Park at 1169 mi
2
. By comparison, 45 other national parks across the African continent are larger, beginning
with Namibia’s 32,818 mi
2
Mudumu National Park, Tanzania’s 21,235 mi
2
Selous
Game Reserve, and Botswana’s 20,077 mi
2
Central Kalahari Game Reserve. A
small national park translates at once into the problem of habitat constraints for large
4 See A Window On Eternity – A Biologist’s Walk Through Gorongosa National Park, by E. O.
Wilson, Photographs by Piotr Naskrecki, Simon & Schuster, New York, N.Y., 2014, p. 6.
5 “Devastated by war, this African park’s wildlife is now thriving,” by David Quammen, National
Geographic, December 13, 2018.
Fig. 17.1 School outing at the Museu De Historia Natural de Maputo. (Photo © M.C. Tobias)
17 The Echoes of Malhazine