Black rhinos are walking the hills above Lake Kariba again. This year, animals brought in from other parts of Zimbabwe were released into Matusadona National Park, a landscape that lost its rhinos to poaching. African Bush Camps has now built three guest experiences around the story at Bumi Hills Safari Lodge, on the edge of the park.
How they disappeared
In the 1980s the Sebungwe landscape around Matusadona held Zimbabwe’s largest contiguous population of black rhino. Then organised poaching swept through it. As the threat grew, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority moved the surviving animals to more secure areas around the country. The last rhino recorded in Matusadona itself was seen in 2016.
The homecoming
The new arrivals came from Imire Rhino and Wildlife Conservancy, Matobo National Park and a third protected area. Some of them are descendants of the rhinos that once lived here. After a monitoring period in bomas, they were released into a protected zone of 175 square kilometres, where each animal is tracked with advanced monitoring technology and the ranger force has been expanded to look after them.
The project is a long-term partnership between ZimParks, African Parks, local communities and conservation partners. For African Bush Camps, which is marking its 20th anniversary, founder Beks Ndlovu put it simply: “This is not simply the introduction of rhino into a new landscape. It is a homecoming.”
More than rhinos
The rhinos are part of a wider rewilding effort in the park. In February 2026, twenty African wild dogs were translocated to Matusadona as two established packs. They spent a period in soft release before being let out into the wider park, and they are monitored with GPS collars, alongside community-based early-warning systems and measures to reduce conflict between people and wildlife.
Three ways to be part of it at Bumi Hills
Bumi Hills Safari Lodge sits high above Lake Kariba, next to the park, and it is one of the few lodges with access to this story as it unfolds. From the lodge, African Bush Camps now runs three experiences that put guests inside it.
Matusadona Game Drive. Guests cross the open water of Lake Kariba by boat. On the far shore a Matusadona Conservation Trust vehicle is waiting, and their African Bush Camps guide drives them deeper into Big Five territory, with a stop on the way for refreshments.
Guided Walking Safari. Guests land by boat wherever the walking is best that day and follow a professional guide on foot. The focus is on tracks, the fossils exposed in the hills and the plants long used for medicine. Walks are closely regulated and leave in the morning only.
The Conservation Experience. Reserved for very few guests, this one goes by boat to the conservation centre. Guests see the drone technology used to guard the rhino, meet the team working on the wild dog programme and talk to the people behind the return.
One thing to know before going: the rhinos are protected inside their zone, and their security comes before viewing. These experiences are about hands-on conservation education, not guaranteed sightings.
Where: Matusadona National Park, on the Zimbabwe shore of Lake Kariba
Lodge: Bumi Hills Safari Lodge (African Bush Camps)
Experiences: game drive, walking safari, conservation experience
Good to know: rhinos are protected in their zone, so sightings are not guaranteed
More: Matusadona & Lake Kariba
Sources: African Bush Camps press release of 22 September 2026 (via REYA Communications), African Parks and African Bush Camps. Photographs courtesy of African Bush Camps.