A visit to Bicoar National Park

The Bicoar National Park lies more or less in the south east of Huila Province and is fairly easy to reach from Matala or Quipungo. If you know your way around that is, because signs are still rather scarce. The Angolan government has recently started a rehabilitation programme, and buildings for park rangers are being repaired or newly built. If they also find some funds to put up road signs, people can actually visit the park (provided you have a visa).

Through my contact with Michael Mills, I was invited to come along with a group of Southern African biologists who were doing a biological survey in Southwestern Angola. We left somewhat late on Saturday morning and Michael and I made a first short walk just after two. The camp site is near a small dam with ducks, dabchicks and weavers. In the grasslands around the dam we found lots of cisticolas.

The evening drive made clear that human encroachment is the main problem is for the park. People have planted fields right up to the boundary of the park and they cut wood and graze their cattle inside the park. This became even more obvious the next day, when Michael and I made another walk in the company of two rangers. We heard someone chopping wood, so one ranger went to investigate. I asked the other one what would happen and the reply was: wood chopping is bad, we will arrest the culprit and take him to the camp. However, when the investigating ranger came back, he did not bring an arrested person, but had his hands full of honey combs. Apparently he and the culprit had decided that it was much easier for everybody if a fine was paid in honey.

The northern part of the park has not much wildlife due to all the human interference. However, some people saw a leapord with two cubs and Michael and I found over 50 species of birds. Not the ones we were hoping for, because the woodland is not mature enough in this part of the park. But Michael did find some cuckoo finches.