Liwonde National Park

Liwonde National Park
IUCN category II (national park)
Elephants in Liwonde National Park
Location	Malawi
Coordinates	14°50′S 35°20′E / 14.833°S 35.333°E / -14.833; 35.333Coordinates: 14°50′S 35°20′E / 14.833°S 35.333°E / -14.833; 35.333
Area	548 km²
Established	1973

Liwonde National Park is a national park in Malawi. It is located on the upper Shire River plain, east of the river, 140 km north of Limbe. Its southern gate lies about 6 km from the town center of Liwonde, and is accessible by bicycle taxi or walking. There are several affordable lodges near this entrance gate, the most famous being Liwonde Safari Camp and Bushmen's Baobab. The one main lodge inside the park is Mvuu (which means "hippo" in Chichewa) Camp. All lodges provide accommodations and game viewing on walking tours, drives, and boat/canoe trips. The park is home to several species of antelope (impala, kudu, waterbuck, etc.), elephants, buffalo, crocodiles, hippopotamus and many other mammals. Also there are more than 400 species of bird found in this park.

Liwonde National Park is in the southern part of Malawi near the Mozambican border. It is situated on the left bank of the Shire river between Lake Malombe and Liwonde.

In 1868, Captain Henry Faulkner wrote for the first time about the Liwonde area. He and others who followed him all wrote about enormous quantities of game, like zebras, elands, hippos and hyenas. These numbers decreased significantly when hunters came to the area in the late 19th century. By the 1890s, administrators and settlers of Zomba, only 50 km to the south, had their favourite recreational hunting ground here. Before 1930, the wildebeest, the black rhino and the nyala antelope had disappeared in the area. Others followed soon after World War II. The African wild dog, the eland, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest, buffalo and zebra were all last seen in the 1960s or 1970s. In order to protect the remaining wildlife, a Controlled Hunting Area was proclaimed in 1962. It was upgraded in 1969 as a game reserve and finally a national park in 1973. Since then, hippos and elephants do much better. Elephant numbers increased from 200 to 900. And since the 1990s some species like the black rhino, the zebra, the buffalo, the eland, the hartebeest and the roan antelope were reintroduced. After being absent for 20 years, lions recently came back from Mozambique to Liwonde National Park.