Mole
National Park is Ghana's largest wildlife refuge. The park is located in
northwest Ghana on grassland savanna and riparian ecosystems at an elevation
of 150 m, with sharp escarpment forming the southern boundary of the park.
The park's entrance is reached through the nearby community of Larabanga.
The Lovi and Mole Rivers are ephemeral rivers flowing through the park,
leaving behind only drinking holes during the long dry season. This area of
Ghana receives over 1000 mm per year of rainfall. A long-term study has been
done on Mole National Park to understand the impact of human hunters on the
animals in the preserve.
The park's lands were
set aside as a wildlife refuge in 1958. In 1971 the small human population
of the area was relocated and the lands were designated a national park. The
park has not seen major development as a tourist location since its original
designation. The park as a protective area is underfunded and national and
international concerns exist about poaching and sustainability in the park,
but its protection of important resident antelope species has improved since
its initial founding as a preserve.
The park is an important study area for scientists because of the removal of
the human population from within the park allowing for some long-term
studies, in particular, of relatively undisturbed sites compared to similar
areas of densely populated equatorial West Africa. One study on the resident
population of 800 elephants, for example, indicates that elephant damage to
large trees varies with species. In Mole, elephants have a greater tendency
to seriously injure economically important species such as Burkea africana,
an important tropical hardwood, and Butyrospermum paradoxum, the source of
shea butter, over the less important Terminalia spp.
Tree species of the park include Burkea
africana, Isoberlinia doka, and Terminalia macroptera. The savanna grasses
are somewhat low in diversity but known species include a spikesedge,
Kyllinga echinata, an Aneilema, Aneilema setiferum var. pallidiciliatum, and
two endemic members of the Asclepiadaceae subfamily, the vine Gongronema
obscurum, and the edible geophyte, Raphionacme vignei.
The park is home to
over 93 mammal species, and the large mammals of the park include an
elephant population, hippos, buffalo, and warthogs. The park is considered a
primary African preserve for antelope species including kob, Defassa
waterbuck, roan, hartebeest, oribi, the bushbuck, and two duikers, the red
duiker and yellow-backed Duiker. Olive baboons, black-and-white colobus
monkeys, the green vervet, and patas monkeys are the known species of
monkeys resident in the park. Of the 33 known species of reptiles slender-snouted
and dwarf crocodile are found in the park. Sightings of hyenas, lions and
leopards are unusual, but these carnivores were once more common in the
park. Among the 344 listed bird species are the martial eagle, the
white-headed and palm-nut vultures, saddle-billed storks, herons, egrets,
the Abyssinian roller, the violet turaco, various shrikes and the
red-throated bee-eater.
Mole National Park, like other Ghanaian game preserves, is poorly funded for
prevention of poaching. Poachers tend to live within 50 km of the boundaries
of the park. This distance of 50 km is the reported greatest distance
hunters were willing to travel with poached game. The remnant human
population of the park was removed in 1961, leaving all game hunters outside
of the reserve, meaning that mammal populations on the edges of the park are
impacted more by hunting than interior populations. |