The wildlife of Zambia refers to the natural flora and fauna of Zambia. This article provides an overview, and outline of the main wildlife areas or regions, and compact lists of animals focusing on prevalence and distribution in the country rather than on taxonomy. More specialized articles on particular groups are linked from here. Overview Ecoregions Using the World Wildlife Fund's classification of ecoregions, Zambia may include miombo, mopane and Baikiaea woodland savanna, with grasslands (mainly flooded grasslands) and evergreen forest also present. The chief determinant of the distribution of ecoregions and wildlife is climate. See Climate of Zambia for more detail. Animals outside the national parks Zambia's "big game" wildlife (including sports fishing) is the foundation of its tourism industry now. One of its biggest employers and foreign-exchange earners: Victoria Falls and cultural events come second and third in importance. However for domestic tourism, this order is reversed and wildlife is not as important, since the national parks and game viewing tours, through which the great majority of the wildlife is experienced, are priced and marketed to international tourism. In the early part of the 20th century, most of Zambia's rural areas supported wildlife at levels similar to that seen in national parks today, and the 'big five' game animals were widespread outside reserves and parks. Of them today, the rhinoceros is almost extinct. The elephant and lion are found almost exclusively in parks, and the African buffalo is found in or close to parks. Of the other large animals, only the spotted hyena, Nile crocodile, hippopotamus, and lechwe are found in numbers outside parks. The former from its success as a scavenger, the latter three since their aquatic habit has less overlap with human activities. The cause of this decline is the four-fold increase in human population in the last fifty years and consequent loss of habitat, especially of forest and woodland. Although commercial farming and ranching is responsible for land-clearing and the elimination of carnivores and competing herbivores, the amount of land used commercially is actually small. The more widespread and less intensive subsistence farming known as chitemene shifting cultivation is more to blame (responsible for about 9000 km2 of woodland deforestation per year), along with charcoal production (responsible for about 2000 km2 of woodland deforestation per year). Secondly, poverty has accompanied the population growth. In the economic boom of the 1940s and 1950s, the mines and