Hyenas evade National Parks officials in Mberengwa

^{Staff Reporter}

A National Parks team is in Mberengwa on a mission to capture or poison hyenas that are feasting on villagers’ donkeys and goats every night.

The team has not yet made any headway, despite the villagers’ claims that the scavengers laugh from nearby mountains and hills every night while preying on their domestic animals.

Following Zimbabwe Observer‘s publication of the villagers’ nightmare in the hands of the nocturnal carnivorous mammals, National Parks dispatched a team to put a stop to the loss of domestic animals and threats to people’s lives.

National Parks Spokesman Tinashe Farawo admitted in an interview with Zimbabwe Observer that his team has not yet registered any progress.

“I am sure you are aware that our reaction team visited your village. It is not an easy mission, they (hyenas) are also clever. They are still on the ground,” said Farawo.

Farawo described the mission as work in progress and ruled out chances of aborting it any time soon.

“We bait them……its a process. I need to check progress but believe you me we are doing our best to deal with the problem,” said Farawo.

The National Parks team is reportedly working with the local councilor Silibaziso Chitova and has not yet met families that are losing their donkeys and goats every night. The councilor of the affected ward stays in Gwai area where hyenas’ activities are limited.

“But National Parks team is hunting for hyenas in areas where they are none. They must come to us here around Biri Dam and Imbahuru Mountain and they will hear them laughing at every night. They must interact and interview families losing their goats,” said one villager who refused to identify himself.

Moses Dube, a headmaster at Makwava School, who lost his donkey last week is still to meet the National Parks officials who have been in the area for a couple of days.

“Heard kuti vakaona councilor. Trying to trace them and I am in the process of getting an update from the councilor,” said Dube.

Local MP Tasara Hungwe confirmed that nothing yet has come out of the National Parks mission.

Zimbabwe Observer‘s efforts to contact Chitova drew blanks.

The search for hyenas followed after Zimbabwe Observer alerted National Parks of the problem where marauding hyenas are feasting on the villagers’ donkeys and goats every night.

So dire is the situation in Chief Chingoma’s ward 37 that residents have to be behind their locked gated homes before sun set for fear of being attacked and eaten up by the nocturnal scavengers.

The terrifying laughs of foraging hyenas tear through the quiet nights every day, much to the distress of villagers who spend their twilights on their toes for fear of being eaten in their sleep. Wild howling of dogs during the wee hours of every morning in the villages heralds the raccoons’ fatal visits to villagers’ kraals. This is usually followed by the bleating of goats and brazing of donkeys as they fight for survival under the mighty biting force of the daring carnivorous mammals.

One Dube family lost a calf and two donkeys within a month.

“Madeko kune rimwe dongi rakadyiwa nebere kwa gogo my Pretty, saka tiri kuda kuisa report kuneve National Parks yakakwana,” complained one villager in a family WhatsApp Group which Zimbabwe Observer has access to.

Dube told Zimbabwe Observer, last week that hyenas were becoming daily features in his area.

“I never imagined even in my wildest dreams that life could be this dangerous in our village. We don’t feel safe at home,” complained Dube.

Two calves rescued recently in Pararai village just after sunset when passers-by scared the hyenas with a flashlight.

“It was after 1700 hours when hyenas attacked calves yesterday at Baba Kudzai’s kraal, a few metres from us and we had to frighten them by making noise and torching them,” revealed one villager who also preferred anonymity.

Mayor Hove from Vangowa area near Gwai School lost two donkeys to the hyenas last week further deepening panic among the villagers.

Some animals are limping with deep wounds after surviving the blood attacks of the scroungers.

Another villager, Senzani Pavazhira, whose home is next to Imbahuru Mountain, made dreadful disclosures of how she heard leopards bellowing from the mountain.

The human eating vertebrates are sneaking from the nearby Sovelele Settlement where land grabbers damaged the fence during farm invasions.

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