"THERE'S ONE, 10 O'CLOCK!” MY HEARING WAS still muffled following an exuberant takeoff from the Mongu helipad by Rachele, my Italian pilot, yet her proclamation pierced the whirring blades like the shrill tone of a morning alarm. “Have you got it?”
I had barely raised the camera from my lap when she had managed to pull the equivalent of a handbrake turn, spinning the helicopter 180° on its nose and pointing me directly at the slow, loping target below. And there it was, a full-blown example of what I had come all this way to see: Crocuta crocuta - the oft-unloved but utterly compelling spotted hyena.
For the previous five minutes, I had moderately cursed my decision to request doors off' as the chopper flew high across the Zambezi River, and had tugged gently at my seatbelt to reassure myself that I was safely strapped in. But now, catching my first glimpse of this apex predator making its way calmly through swaying grass and across open pans, I quickly forgot my fears.
Spread out below me was one of Zambia's most spectacular, yet largely untrammeled wild spaces: Liuwa Plain National Park. This 3,660km² reserve protects a large proportion of the Barotse floodplain, an extensive area that houses several other game management zones stretching as far as the Angolan border. The park provides ample resources, which ensures a peaceful co-existence between people and wildlife.
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