Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park is Livingstone's natural surprise: a small wildlife sanctuary on the banks of the Zambezi, right next to Victoria Falls, where in just half a day you can go on safari practically without leaving town. Its name —'the smoke that thunders'— is the same one local peoples use for the falls, and the park protects both the waterfall and this stretch of riverside savannah teeming with life.
What makes this park unique is that it is the only place in all of Zambia where you can see white rhinos. Reintroduced in 1993 after being wiped out by poaching, they are now watched over day and night by armed rangers. The highlight is the 'rhino walk': an approach on foot, with guides and rangers, to see these giants up close. With no lions or other large predators, it is a safe and accessible safari, ideal for families and for anyone without time to visit the country's big parks.
This guide explains how to visit the wildlife section of Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park: which animals you'll see, how the rhino walk works, how much admission costs and how to combine it with the falls and Livingstone's other attractions. Small but charming, it is the easiest way to add a real safari —rhinos included— to a trip to Victoria Falls.
Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park grew out of the protection of Victoria Falls and their surroundings. In 1993 a historic step was taken: white rhinos were reintroduced into its wildlife section, the first in Zambia after the species was wiped out locally by poaching, in a pioneering conservation project guarded by rangers. Together with the falls, it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site declared in 1989. The story of the park, its rhinos and conservation on the Zambezi is told on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The birthplace of tourism in Zambia: by the Zambezi roars Mosi-oa-Tunya, 'the smoke that thunders', which David Livingstone renamed Victoria Falls in 1855 and which gave its name to a whole town.
Read the history of Livingstone and Victoria Falls →They depart from Livingstone, 5 km away. If you book from this link we earn a commission and you pay no more.
No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park takes its name from what local peoples have always called Victoria Falls: 'Mosi-oa-Tunya', 'the smoke that thunders', after the column of spray and the roar of the water. The park protects both the falls and a stretch of the Zambezi River and the riverside savannah around it, in southern Zambia, next to the town of Livingstone.
At only about 66 km², it is one of the smallest national parks in Zambia, a country with some of the largest in Africa, such as Kafue or South Luangwa. Its value lies not in its size but in what it packs in: one of the largest waterfalls in the world, a World Heritage Site, and a wildlife sanctuary on the riverbank, all a few minutes from a town.
In practice, the park is split into two sectors. One is the falls sector, with the walkways, the Knife-Edge Bridge and the viewpoints. The other is the 'game park' or wildlife sector, a fenced area on the banks of the Zambezi where animals were reintroduced and are protected, and where safaris take place today. This dual nature — natural wonder and wildlife reserve — defines the park's identity.
From the early 20th century, with the arrival of the railway and the birth of Livingstone, Victoria Falls became a world-famous tourist attraction. The need to protect the surroundings of the falls and their wildlife eventually led to the creation of conservation areas in the region, first as a reserve and later as a national park run by the Zambian wildlife authorities.
International recognition came in 1989, when Unesco declared Victoria Falls / Mosi-oa-Tunya a World Heritage Site, a title shared with Zimbabwe, whose side is also protected (as Victoria Falls National Park). This declaration strengthened the protection of the site and its management as an area of universal value, requiring a balance between tourism and conservation.
On the Zambian side, the park came under the national parks authority — today the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) — which collects admission fees, maintains the walkways and trails, and looks after the wildlife. Its closeness to Livingstone made the park a key part of tourism in southern Zambia, visited by almost everyone who comes to see the falls.
One of the most important chapters in the park's history is the return of the rhinos. Poaching, which ravaged southern Africa throughout the 20th century, had wiped out the rhinos in Zambia, whose last wild population disappeared as animals were killed to traffic their horns. Like so many other countries, Zambia lost one of its iconic species.
In 1993 a pioneering step was taken: white rhinos were reintroduced into the wildlife sector of Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, the first in Zambia after their local extinction. The choice of location was no accident: a small, fenced and guarded park, next to a town and busy with tourists, offered better conditions to protect the animals from poachers than the vast, remote expanses of the interior.
Since then, the park's rhinos have been guarded 24 hours a day by armed rangers who stay with them at all times. Thanks to this constant watch, the small population has survived and bred, making Mosi-oa-Tunya the only place in Zambia where you can see white rhinos today, and a symbol of what determined conservation can achieve against poaching.
Today Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park plays a dual role: protecting one of the planet's great natural wonders and offering, in its wildlife sector, an accessible and safe safari experience, with the rhinos as the stars. Tourism is its main source of income and also its best guarantee of protection: the steady flow of visitors and rangers deters poachers.
The park does, however, face challenges that come with its small size and location. Pressure from the urban growth of Livingstone, the balance between mass tourism at the falls and conservation, the ongoing protection of the rhinos against the ever-present threat of poaching, and the effects of climate change on the flow of the Zambezi — with years of severe drought — are open questions that call for careful management.
Even so, the park remains a gem: within a single protected area it brings together 'the smoke that thunders', the Zambezi River with its hippos and birds, and herds of giraffes, zebras and rhinos just a step from town. For visitors, it is the easiest gateway to Zambia's wild nature; for the country, a conservation emblem and a centrepiece of its tourism industry. The park's history, short but intense, sums up the challenge of protecting nature in a fast-changing world.
