Hwange is mostly dry. There are very few rivers, so animals depend on waterholes scattered across the park. Many of these waterholes are pumped using solar power - rangers and volunteers keep them topped up all year so the elephants, buffalo, giraffes and zebras have somewhere to drink. Without those pumps, the park would be very different.
The park has more than 100 kinds of mammal and over 400 kinds of bird. Lions, leopards, cheetahs and wild dogs all live here. Painted wild dogs are one of the rarest animals in Africa, and Hwange is one of the best places left to find them. They hunt in packs and 'vote' by sneezing - if enough dogs sneeze, the pack agrees to start moving.
Hwange used to be the royal hunting ground of a Ndebele king called Mzilikazi. In 1928, his hunting ground was protected as a national park. Today the local communities around it work as guides, trackers and rangers. Many guides have grown up knowing the park's animals as individuals - they can recognise specific elephants by the shape of their ears.
One famous old elephant called 'Nzou' lived in Hwange for over 50 years and was the matriarch of a buffalo herd, not an elephant family. She had been adopted as a calf by a herd of buffalo and never left them. Stories like Nzou show that wild animals can surprise us if we watch them long enough.