Banhine National Park is a protected area in the district of Chigubo, northern Gaza Province,
Mozambique. The park was proclaimed on 26 June 1973. The park is 7,000 square kilometres (2,700 sq mi) in area and holds extensive inland wetlands, acting as an important source of water to the dry lands that surround it. The park is in an area that has annual rainfall of only 430 millimetres (17 in). However, over 1% of the park is wetland and there are also more than a thousand pans that range in size from a few square meters to hundreds of hectares. These pans may be very salty or "sweet" and drinkable. The water comes from the area to the northwest near the
Zimbabwe boundary, flowing through many channels into the wetlands and then into the Changane River.
18 species of fish have been found in the park. The African lungfish, two killifish species and two Barbel species have developed ways to deal with predictable periods of drought. At times, the wetlands are completely dry on the surface. The Banhine National Park used to be home to buffalo, sable, tsetsebe, hartebeest, zebra, and wildebeest. Many of these animals were destroyed during the civil wars of the 1980s and early 1990s. However, the park is still home to endangered wattled cranes and to many migratory birds. Results of an aerial survey in October 2004 showed that the park had healthy populations of ostrich, kudu, impala, reedbuck, duiker, steenbok, porcupine, warthog and oribi.
