Tourism and Environment

How old is Victoria Falls’ famed ‘Big Tree’?

Published

4 years ago

November 27, 2021

BY JONATHAN MOENS

Patrut and his team flew in from three different continents to study the “Big Tree” at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, and for good reason.

The Big Tree is a colossal structure, soaring over 80 feet in the air, around 75 feet in circumference, with bulky branches, many stems that make up its trunk, and a wide, gaping hole at its core.

The Big Tree is thought to be one of the largest and oldest African baobab trees in the world.

Once the team of three arrived at Victoria Falls, they immediately rented a car to see the Big Tree in person.

Its proximity to the falls, a major tourist destination, means that millions of visitors see it in a normal year, making it a sensation in its own right.

The sight did not disappoint, Patrut says.

“It was as if we had entered straight into a museum, into a well-known painting of a master, but we operated as scientists,” according to the nuclear chemist at Babes-Bolyai University in Romania.

“I circled the baobab and admired it from all possible angles.”

Patrut, who has been studying ancient trees for decades, and his team made the pilgrimage to study the growth, age, and architecture of the tree.

Dating ancient trees often involves counting “growth rings” that appear seasonally, a tried and true method that unfortunately doesn’t work well for baobabs.

These often massive trees have only very faint growth rings, and many have large cavities in their trunk and stems that confound attempts to date them.

Until recently, most of evaluations of African baobab trees have been “guesstimates,” he says.

But over the past decade, Patrut has been refining a more precise method for estimating the age of baobab trees: radiocarbon dating. Patrut has used it on trees across the continent: South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia.

For the Big Tree, his team found that its multiple stems have different ages, with its oldest one dating back to about 870, around the time that Vikings first sTo do this, the team inserted a T-shaped tool called an “increment borer” into different areas of the stems of the baobab.

The tool extracts tiny wood samples at different depths, which the team then treated and sent to a lab for dating.

The results show that the nine stems (including a “false” stem that emerged out of an adjacent one) can be lumped into three distinct generations.

There was the oldest one, at about 1,100 to 1,200 years old, a group that are around 600 to 700 years old, and another generation that dates to between 200 and 250 years ago.

The team also found that the oldest stems haven’t grown further for more than a century.ettled in Iceland.

“Stopped growing a hundred or so years ago—that’s an interesting finding,” says Bernd Kromer, a radiocarbon dating expert at Heidelberg University who was not involved in the research.

The stunting may be attributable to stress and age, but the tree is still alive and continues to produce leaves and flowers.

It’s unclear how baobabs can live for so long.

Patrut says that a tree’s capacity to periodically produce new stems that fuse together into the distinctive ring-shaped architecture allows them to persist and reach very large sizes.

Others say that monumental trees can have extremely long lives because they may be particularly resilient to external agents, including diseases, cancers, and pests.

Patrut’s study gives us insight into the “incredible strategies that trees use to cope with stress and old age,” says Livia Zapponi, an ecologist at the Edmund Mach Foundation, who has studied monumental trees and was not involved in the study.

The Big Tree is something of an outlier.

While there are more than 100 million African baobabs in the world, fewer than 100 are thought to be 1,000 years or more old, says Patrut.

All of them have inevitably endured countless threats, both acute and chronic.

The Big Tree is no exception: In the 1960s, it survived a violent storm that virtually destroyed the upper part of its canopy.

As climate change continues, African baobabs, especially older ones that rely on heavy rainfalls, could face scorching heat and prolonged drought can push them to their limits.

“[These are] very old trees that have survived for centuries, withstanding various abiotic and biotic factors including but not limited to extreme weather events,” says Patrut.

The Big Tree is large and old, but more than that, he says, it is resilient and adaptive—traits that are ever-more-critical in the face of an uncertain future – Atlas Obscura

In the community

Zimbabwe moves to support human-wildlife conflict victims

Published

20 hours ago

April 29, 2026

VicFallsLive

BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

Cabinet has officially approved a transformative National Wildlife Policy, marking the first major overhaul of the sector’s regulatory framework in over three decades.

For the communities of Matabeleland North—from the elephant-dense corridors of Hwange to the tourism heartbeat of Victoria Falls—the policy promises a radical shift in how local people coexist with and benefit from the country’s natural heritage.

Presented by Finance minister Mthuli Ncube on Tuesday, the new policy acknowledges that the wildlife sector has been “remarkably transformed” since the current laws were enacted in 1992.

The updated framework seeks to align Zimbabwe with modern international best practices, moving toward a “vibrant wildlife-anchored economy” that directly supports national development.

For residents of Hwange and Victoria Falls, the most critical breakthrough is the policy’s explicit focus on human-wildlife conflict (HWC).

The framework provides for the implementation of the Human-Wildlife Conflict Relief Fund, specifically designed to provide benefits and support to victims of wildlife encounters.

This is paired with new regulations for CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources) and the establishment of dedicated wildlife corridors to reduce dangerous interactions between animals and human settlements.

The policy is built upon 10 strategic pillars, including community-based natural resources management and the equitable sharing of benefits.

Crucially, the government now recognises wildlife as a “public resource,” with the policy aiming to support devolution and enhance “active community participation.”

This ensures that present and future generations in Matabeleland North are not just neighbours to the game reserves, but active stakeholders in its socio-economic success.

However, community members say the success of the policy will depend on how effectively benefits are devolved to grassroots level.

“We have heard policies before, but what matters is whether the money reaches us,” said a Hwange villager, Eslina Ndlovu from Nemanhanga. “Our schools are struggling, some do not even have adequate classrooms or learning materials. If wildlife revenue is coming from our areas, it should help improve our education system.”

Another villager,Joseph Mwembe from Vukuzenzele village under Chief Mvuthu, echoed similar sentiments, calling for investment in health services. “We are living with wildlife every day, but our hospitals are not equipped. We don’t have proper referral hospitals or machines. If this policy is serious about supporting communities, then we must see that money building clinics, equipping hospitals, and improving services here in Matabeleland North,” he said.

Villagers stressed that without tangible improvements in infrastructure and social services, the policy risks falling short of its intended impact.

“If communities do not benefit in real terms, then it defeats the whole purpose of calling wildlife a national resource,” added Ndlovu.

The policy also introduces measures for fisheries conservation and the protection of indigenous plant species, with strict penalties for violations that threaten resource sustainability.

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Tourist hospitalised after elephant attack

Published

7 days ago

April 23, 2026

VicFallsLive

BY STAFF REPORTER

A 65-year-old Japanese tourist has been seriously injured after being attacked by an elephant near Victoria Falls, according to the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks).

In a statement on Thursday, ZimParks spokesperson Luckmore Safuli said Hidetoshi Matsumoto was attacked on Wednesday morning while walking alone along Big Tree Road, a route frequently used by visitors near the Victoria Falls Big Tree.

“A 65-year-old Japanese man by the name Hidetoshi Matsumoto, who was staying at the Rainbow Hotel in Victoria Falls, was attacked and injured by an elephant while walking along the Big Tree Road,” Safuli said.

He said the incident occurred at around 8 am.

“The circumstances surrounding the incident are that on 22 April 2026 at around 0800 hours, Hidetoshi Matsumoto was alone walking along the Big Tree Road when an elephant emerged from nowhere and attacked him. Hidetoshi sustained severe injuries all over his body and was immediately rushed to Health Bridge Private Hospital for medical treatment,” he added.

Matsumoto was taken to Health Bridge Private Hospital, where he is receiving treatment.

ZimParks said rangers had been deployed to track down what it described as the “problem elephant”.

“Meanwhile, ZimParks rangers are on the ground searching for the problem elephant,” Safuli said.

He added that further details would be released as investigations continue and efforts to locate the animal progress.

Wildlife authorities have previously warned visitors to exercise caution when walking in areas bordering national parks, where wild animals can roam freely.
SOURCE: CITE

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A guardian’s legacy: PDC honours Greg ‘Gibby’ Gibbard as painted dog successes grow

Published

3 weeks ago

April 9, 2026

VicFallsLive

BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

In a poignant tribute that has resonated across the conservation community, Painted Dog Conservation (PDC) recently gathered to honour the memory of Greg ‘Gibby’ Gibbard, a man whose life was inextricably linked to the survival of the African wild dog. Gibbard, who passed away in 2015, is being remembered not just for his years of service, but for a legacy that continues to safeguard one of the continent’s most endangered predators.

The Facebook remembrance, shared by Maria of PDC, highlights a life defined by “unwavering courage” and a refusal to let the story of the painted dog end. While the region continues to grapple with intense poaching pressure—including a recent surge in illegal traps that has seen thousands of snares removed from the bush—the focus of this week’s memorial is on the “hope and resilience” that Gibbard instilled in the mission.

Tracking Footprints in the Sand

For those who knew him, Greg’s work was far from the polished image of modern wildlife tourism. It was characterized by “long days in the bush, tracking fading footprints in dust and sand,” and the relentless, often exhausting effort of “educating communities and inspiring young conservationists.”

Maria noted that Gibbard stood as a “guardian of a species that many had forgotten,” recognizing early on that the survival of the patchwork-coated dogs was “inseparable from our own future.” His dedication spanned “sleepless nights worrying about disease and disappearing habitat,” a commitment that laid the foundation for the sophisticated tracking and research operations used by PDC today.

A Legacy of Resilience: The Umkhonto Pack

The success of modern interventions is widely seen as a continuation of Gibbard’s vision. A primary example is the Umkhonto Pack, which has become a “flagship example of science-driven, field-based conservation”.

Image by PDC

Though the park faces ongoing challenges with illegal snaring in communal areas, the protection of this specific pack has been a resounding victory. According to the latest PDC data:

Eight healthy pups were successfully raised during the last denning season with no mortalities .
The pack has stabilized at 19 individuals , now ranging within the safety of Hwange National Park.
The integration of research and tracking technology—methods Gibbard championed—led to the arrest of eleven poachers in the pack’s territory.

The “Shadows of the Savanna” Live OnAs the conservation community marks a decade since his passing, the presence of these “remarkable predators” remains the ultimate tribute to his life. The current population in the Hwange and Sinamatela regions is robust, with several monitored packs carrying the torch of his efforts.

The Emerald pack, which has reached 22 individuals, and the Batsha pack , with 20 dogs, are thriving examples of the “unbreakable family bonds” Maria spoke of in her tribute . Other groups, including the Kingsbury, Linkwasha, Chowato, Cave, Intundla, Khumbula, and Garikamwe packs, continue to move like “shadows across the savanna at sunrise,” fulfilling Gibbard’s dream of a wilderness that still echoes with their high-pitched calls.

“May we honour Greg’s memory not only with words, but with action,” the tribute concluded.