Nkhotokota Wildlife Reserve is probably one of Malawi’s least understood reserves. It’s a true wilderness; an overgrown canopy and raw African landscape that is as jungle as you can get. There are no man-made watering holes, no prefab hide outs - it’s literally untouched. Although this has its down sides, the pros of allowing a natural landscape to flourish and the benefits that it brings to the wildlife far out way the cons.

(TRAVPR.COM) UNITED KINGDOM - February 12th, 2014 - Nkhotokota Wildlife Reserve is probably one of Malawi’s least understood reserves. It’s a true wilderness; an overgrown canopy and raw African landscape that is as jungle as you can get. There are no man-made watering holes, no prefab hide outs - it’s literally untouched. Although this has its down sides, the pros of allowing a natural landscape to flourish and the benefits that it brings to the wildlife far out way the cons.

At the end of last year an aerial survey was carried out to try and gauge the number of animals in the 700 square mile reserve. This provided a good starting point, but as visibility was limited due to the thick canopy and rifts and gorges that provide shelter for wildlife, it was decided that a ground survey needed to be done.

For anyone who has stayed within the reserve particularly at Tongole Lodge, who have now launched an office in the Golden Peacock Shopping Centre in Lilongwe, will know first hand about the wealth of animals that are there, even if they aren’t always easy to see. Elephants, buffalo, water bucks, crocs and bush pigs can be regularly seen, and often are spotted on just the drive into the park. But, the reserve’s ground survey which covered just a 150 square kilometre section, provided some suprising results.

Large numbers of elephants, waterbuck, sable, bush buck and duikers were all noted and the total number detected was very high. Perhaps less expected results were those that included sightings of leopard, lion and hyena in the Reserve. This shows a predatory presence and that although sightings of these animals were few, they are there – and more than those spotted in the sample will be living across the reserve.

Larger animals such as zebra were also seen, as well as kudu, one of Africa’s rarest and largest antelope. In total over 25 different land mammals have been recorded.

All this makes the way for a very exciting future for Nkhotakota, especially as the reserve is set to be taken under the wing of African Parks, so successful at Majete Wildlife Reserve. Liwonde National Park and Majete are without doubt massive wildlife success stories in their own right, but as more digging goes into the make up of Nkhotakota, there’s no doubt that 2014 will see much more attention globally on this little known wilderness.

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