He has accentuated the stripes on his back, and as a final flourish, he has pulled on yellow rugby socks. I challenge anyone to saunter round in an outfit like that and look half as dignified. Despite all that, they are not all that easy to see. They feel happiest in the security of the thickets, which ironically has been the cause of their dramatic fall in numbers. A thicket that gives privacy to nyala gives equal privacy to poachers.
Game paths through thicket are easy to spot, and useful places to set snares and gin-traps.
By contrast, the arrogant sun-loving buffalo out in the grasslands thrive and prosper. Well, maybe that's stating things a little too simplistically. The buffalo are poached too, but not as easily as nyala. And Lengwe National Park maintains the largest herd of buffalo in Malawi. We saw a languid group of some three hundred, their heavy bosses like molten wax, soapy noses pointing at us bluntly.