page_title: Bangweulu Wetlands
section_title: Flora and fauna
hierarchical_section_title: Bangweulu Wetlands / Flora and fauna
caption_attribution_description: A small portion of a herd of Black lechwe (Kobus leche) at Bangweulu swamps, Zambia
context_page_description: The Bangweulu Wetlands is a wetland ecosystem adjacent to Lake Bangweulu in north-eastern Zambia. The area has been designated as one of the world's most important wetlands by the Ramsar Convention, and an "Important Bird Area" by BirdLife International. African Parks began managing Bangweulu in partnership with Zambia's Department of National Parks and Wildlife with the establishment of the Bangweulu Wetland Management Board in August 2008.
context_section_description: The ecosystem has Cyperus papyrus, floating grasses, miombo woodland, and reeds that support large populations of crocodiles, fish, and water birds. Mammals include buffalo, Burchell's zebra, bushbuck, common tsessebe, elephants, hippopotamus, hyenas, jackals, migrating lechwe, oribi, reedbuck, roan and sable antelope, and sitatunga. Bangweulu has the only remaining significant population of the black lechwe. There were an estimated 35,000 reported in 2005, and approximately 75,000 in 2012. Millions of straw-coloured fruit bats migrate to Bangweulu's Mushitu swamp forest, in Kasanka National Park. In 2016, African Parks partnered with Fondation Segré to relocate 600 animals, including hartebeest, impala, and puku, into the wetlands.
  Bangweulu has been designated as an "Important Bird Area" by BirdLife International. The wetlands are home to more than 400 bird species, including cormorants, ducks, egrets, geese, herons, ibises, pygmy goose, and waders. Most notable is the shoebill, a vulnerable species threatened by habitat burning for farming, competition with fisheries, wildlife trade, and other disturbances. Other species recorded in Bangweulu include the great white pelican, saddle-billed stork, African spoonbill, and wattled crane.
caption: Herd of black lechwe in Bangweulu in 2006; the wetlands are home to the species' last significant population.
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