Bird park again imperiled, this time by virus

Zimbabwe sanctuary faces tourism crunch

HARARE, Zimbabwe — A fish eagle swoops over the water to grab a fish in its talons and then flies to its nest.

Nearby are a martial eagle, a black eagle, an Egyptian vulture and hundreds of other birds. With an estimated 400 species of birds on an idyllic spot on Zimbabwe’s Lake Chivero, about 25 miles south of Harare, the Kuimba Shiri bird sanctuary has been drawing tourists for more than 15 years.

The southern African country’s only bird park has survived tumultuous times, including violent land invasions and an economic collapse, but the outbreak of coronavirus is proving a stern test.

“I thought I had survived the worst, but this coronavirus is something else,” owner Gary Strafford said. “One-third of our visitors are from China. They stopped coming in February … and when we were shut down in March, that was just unbelievable.”

A lifelong bird enthusiast, Strafford, 62, established the center for injured, orphaned and abandoned birds in 1992, and tourism has kept the park going.

With Zimbabwe’s inflation rising to over 750 percent, tourism establishments are battling an economic downturn worsened by the new coronavirus travel restrictions.

Zimbabwe’s tourism already was facing problems. The country recorded just over 2 million visitors in 2019, an 11 percent decline from the previous year, according to official figures.

But tourism remained one of the country’s biggest foreign currency earners, with minerals and tobacco.

Now tourism “is dead because of coronavirus,” said Tinashe Farawo, the spokesman for the country’s national parks agency. National parks and other animal sanctuaries such as Kuimba Shiri are battling to stay afloat, he said.

Kuimba Shiri, which means singing bird in Zimbabwe’s Shona language, was closed for more than three months.

But there is some hope. As Zimbabwe relaxes some of its restrictions, the sanctuary is able to open to limited numbers of visitors.

Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi The Associated Press A handler prepares a bird for flight at a sanctuary near Harare, Zimbabwe. The pandemic has harmed tourism, reducing visitation to Zimbabwe’s only bird park.