Matusadona National Park

Wildlife & Animals

Expert

Philip is our Zimbabwe expert and author of more than 20 guidebooks to Africa.

Matusadona National Park offers excellent wildlife viewing of most big safari animals, including four of the Big Five, with black rhino (locally extinct since 2016) being the exception. The lakeshore is excellent for hippo, crocodile and large herds of elephant and buffalo. Kudu, impala and waterbuck are some of the common antelope. Lion, leopard and spotted hyena are present in good numbers.

ElephantAbundant

GiraffeNone

HippoAbundant

BuffaloCommon

ZebraOccasional

WildebeestNone

White RhinoNone

Black RhinoNone

LionOccasional

LeopardRare

CheetahNone

HyenaOccasional

Wild DogVery Rare

Wildlife Highlights

Wildlife viewing is best on the Lake Kariba floodplain, where large herds of elephant and buffalo can be seen alongside impala, waterbuck, greater kudu and warthog. This open grassland is also a favored hunting ground for the park’s resident lion prides. Eland, roan and sable antelope inhabit the inaccessible miombo woodland but may sometimes be spotted toward the end of the Dry season when they come to the lakeshore to drink.

Best Time for Wildlife Viewing

The dry months from May to October are the best time for wildlife viewing in the park. Wildlife is easier to spot then because vegetation is thinner and animals gather on the floodplains of Lake Kariba. From December to March, during the peak of the Wet season, flooding rivers are a problem and wildife tends to scatter throughout the park.