The Rescue of Rhinoceroses at Kariba Dam

Abstract

The lake damming the Zambezi river at Kariba will eventually be 175 miles long and 2,000 square miles in extent. Much of the flooded land was rich in wild animals. As the country either side of the Zambezi is not a gentle slope, but very hilly, the animals that lived in the inundated areas were not gradually driven away by an advancing tide line, but on the contrary, found the water advancing on them from every side. They were accustomed to floods and merely sought higher ground, but when that in its turn was inundated or remained above the lake only as an island, the marooned animals—if they were not rescued—would either drown or run out of food and starve.