Animals struggling to survive on Zimbabwe's Starvation Island

The island has shrunk to about one-third of its original size after record seasonal rains from central Africa drained into the Kariba lake.


The two-square-mile island has become four dots of land in the lake, stranding hundreds of animals without enough to eat. At least 200 animals are in immediate danger of starvation, conservationists have warned.
Eight impalas were stuck on one part that was surrounded by encroaching water, said wildlife guide Richard Vickery. Two impalas managed to swim to larger rocks nearby as their tiny refuge shrank. But more than 20 animals plunged into the water and seven of them drowned, Mr Vickery said.


Some of the exhausted survivors swam to safety and others were assisted by a boat of rescuers holding them by the horns to keep their heads above water for the last stretch of their escape.

Elephants and some other animals have routinely swum to and from the island, but smaller species of antelope, kudu, buck, warthogs and monkeys either won't dare swim more than a few feet or are too weak reach the main lake shore about two miles away.

Funds are being raised by conservationists, including the SAVE Foundation of Australia, to take hay bales and food blocks to the animals who remain on the island.

"We would rather try to feed them than dart and capture them and bring them out because they are weak and have not been exposed to predators except for crocodiles," Mr Vickery said.

The Kariba dam was completed in 1960 and stretches about 190 miles (300 kilometers) along Zimbabwe's northern border with Zambia. During the dam construction on the Zambezi River, tens of thousands of animals were herded inland from the vast valley as it filled. Others were captured and relocated from high ground and outcrops like Starvation Island. That program was known as Operation Noah.