location: Namibia

location: Namibia

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Study looks for success factors in African projects that heal land and help people
- Land degradation across Africa impacts the lives of rural Africans, who depend heavily on natural resources.
- Reversing land degradation while improving livelihoods can be tricky, and not all initiatives succeed.
- A recent Sustainability Science study examined 17 initiatives in 13 African nations to tease out what factors contribute to success or failure.
- The study finds that tapping into social relationships, providing adequate incentives to overcome risk-adverse behaviors, and maintaining momentum over the long term emerged as key factors in an initiative’s success.

Namibian conservancies fight to block mining threat to rhinos
- Two Namibian community conservancies and a tourism operator have turned to the courts to block development of a tin mine.
- The conservancies say the environmental impact assessments for the open-pit mine are flawed and will disturb wildlife, including critically endangered southern black rhinos.
- In a similiar case in the //Huab Conservancy, a copper mine disturbed wildlife in the area, forcing rhino-based tourism to shut down.

Inbreeding adds to growing threats to Africa’s smallest wildcat, study finds
- The tiny black-footed cat (Felis nigripes) is one of Africa’s rarest cats, only found in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, with a total population size of fewer than 10,000 individuals.
- The black-footed cat’s genome shows a high level of inbreeding, likely due to historic and recent habitat fragmentation, according to a newly published study.
- Inbreeding may increase the risk of amyloidosis, a fatal disease that kills about 70% of captive black-footed cats, and also affects wild populations.
- Long-term ecological studies of the black-footed cat in South Africa and Namibia finds that the species faces numerous complex threats, including land-use change, fragmentation, disease and climate change.

26 elephants from Namibia moved to Angola’s only private conservation area
- A translocation of 26 elephants from Okonjati Game Reserve in Namibia to Cuatir Conservation Area in southeastern Angola has just been completed.
- Private conservation areas are not yet an official designation in Angola, making Cuatir a pioneer of the approach.
- Southeast Angola has recently been highlighted as an area with a lot of conservation potential, but there’s still a lot of work required to make the region’s national parks viable.
- Proponents say private conservation areas like Cuatir offer another currently underutilized way to catalyze conservation in Angola.

Jumbo collaring effort reveals key elephant movement corridors
- Scientists and conservationists have collaborated to create what is possibly the largest database of GPS-collared elephants.
- The database contains 4 million GPS data points that were collected by collaring 300 African elephants in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, home to the largest population of African elephants in the world.
- Based on the movement of elephants, the team assessed the landscape to identify key areas and corridors for conservation purposes.
- The findings have already been used to identify small-scale movement corridors for elephants in Zambia.

As southern African freshwater fish & fisheries struggle, collaboration is key (commentary)
- Freshwater fish populations in the Kavango and Zambezi (KAZA) river systems of southern Africa are in decline, so many stakeholders met last month in Namibia to share knowledge and suggest ways to address the situation.
- Of the many things shared during the conference, one message was clear: most fish stocks in KAZA are in trouble. Fewer fish means that the people and fish-dependent wildlife are also in trouble.
- “The challenges of fish conservation in KAZA are insurmountable if any of these stakeholders face them alone, but if they work together, it is possible to turn back the tide to restore fish populations and save the lives and livelihoods of our people,” a new op-ed contends.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Analysis of largest elephant surveys ever shows stable population, but disturbing trends
- New research comparing data from the two largest-ever elephant surveys reveals the overall population in the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area is stable, but also uncovers some concerning local trends.
- Elephant numbers in Botswana, home to more elephants than any other country, are stable overall, but declining numbers in areas where hunting is permitted, and increasing numbers in protected areas, suggest underlying issues for Botswana’s elephants.
- Survey comparisons reveal that elephants have all but disappeared from the western Angolan section of the KAZA area, but a lack of local research, an issue across the region, means conservationists are unsure why.
- More research is needed across the transfrontier conservation area to ensure a safe future for the world’s largest elephant population.

Count, connect, conserve: Southern Africa elephant survey points the way (commentary)
- The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) is the largest transboundary terrestrial conservation area in the world – spanning five countries in southern Africa, it is home to Africa’s largest savanna elephant population.
- A 2022 survey of KAZA’s elephants revealed an estimated 227,900 individuals, but their movement is increasingly blocked by fences and human settlements, pointing to the need for better habitat connections and corridors.
- “Now that KAZA’s elephants have been counted, the landscape’s key wildlife areas must be connected, so that elephants and other species can be better conserved,” a new op-ed states.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Report: Rush for ‘clean energy’ minerals in Africa risks repeating harmful extractivist model
- The nonprofit Global Witness investigated lithium mining projects in Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Namibia, which appear to reproduce the same model of extractivism that has impoverished African countries for centuries.
- In March, residents of the Namibian town of Uis took to the streets to protest the activities of Chinese miner Xinfeng, alleging the company was carrying out large-scale industrial mining without the proper permits or social license.
- In Zimbabwe, activist Farai Maguwu from the Centre for Natural Resource Governance described a similar experience of exclusion and exploitation at Chinese miner Sinomine’s Bikita lithium operation, calling it “typical extractivism.”
- One of the ways to prevent exploitation is to shut out companies that “socialize the costs and privatize the profits,” Maguwu said, adding he remains hopeful that encouraging competition between companies from across the world is the way to ensure better outcomes for Zimbabweans.

Even community stewardship can’t save rangeland beset by legacy of misrule
- Land degradation, changing vegetation patterns, and depleting soil quality threaten rangeland across Africa, including Namibia.
- The Community-Based Rangeland and Livestock Management (CBRLM) program, funded by the U.S. and implemented by a German consultancy, supported herders in northern Namibia to manage communal rangeland.
- However, the intervention didn’t improve livestock health or herders’ incomes, while rangeland quality actually worsened.
- While community management failed to deliver the desired results, evaluators say program design flaws were also to blame, in particular issues of land tenure and barriers to creating a livestock market.

‘Anthill tiger’: Putting one of Africa’s rarest wildcats on the radar
- Black-footed cats (Felis nigripes) are the smallest and also one of the rarest wildcat species in Africa. They’re very reclusive, extremely hard to find, and are among the least-studied nocturnal mammals on the continent.
- Data-scarce species like the black-footed cat are difficult to conserve because the most basic knowledge — of their home ranges, territories, habitat, and reproductive, dietary and other behaviors — is often lacking. Without these many life-cycle details, the targeting of effective preservation strategies is near impossible.
- German ecologist Alexander Sliwa has made it his life’s mission to research the elusive black-footed cat. Establishing and working with a small team, he eventually led the way to the formation of the Black-footed Cat Working Group. Thanks largely to those efforts, a substantial database on Felis nigripes now exists.
- This work led to the black-footed cat being listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Though the species’ survival remains far from secure, the design and implementation of conservation strategies will no longer have to start from scratch, and can be built on valuable, already accumulated baseline data.

Namibia’s first peoples struggle to access their traditional lands (commentary)
- Namibia’s internationally acclaimed Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) program receives significant backing.
- Two CBNRM land conservancies are sited in the last strongholds for Indigenous communities in southern Africa, the Ju/hoansi San and the !Kung San.
- However, research suggests that the conservancies’ natural resources often benefit traders, herders, and trophy hunting guides more than the Indigenous peoples, who too often are unable to access their traditional lands.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Namibian community protects its rhinos from poaching but could lose them to mining
- After years of decline, rhino poaching figures increased in Namibia in 2022, with the biggest losses occurring in Etosha National Park
- No rhinos were killed on communal land, yet one such successful conservancy is seeing its rhinos driven away by blasting and other activity at a copper mine that the environment minister approved in the area.
- The conservancy says the displacement of the resident black rhinos threatens the conservation program and revenue from tourism, and is planning to sue the environment minister.
- The //Huab Conservancy’s dispute highlights weaknesses in the ministry’s exercise of environmental regulation.

‘Impact assessments need a shake-up’: Q&A with Georgine Kengne & Morgan Hauptfleisch
- Environmental and social impact assessments as they’re implemented in development projects across Africa need a “shake-up” to ensure they’re fit for purpose, experts say.
- Georgine Kengne, from the WoMin African Alliance, says the ideal ESIA process would be one in which “the government and the mining company are not just colluding to make profits.”
- Morgan Hauptfleisch, a professor of nature conservation in Namibia, says the fundamental problem is that ESIAs and other safeguards can simply be ignored with little consequence other than fines that the companies just budget for anyway.
- Mongabay spoke with both Kengne and Hauptfleisch about ESIAs, community participation, and the underused tool that is the strategic environmental assessment (SEA).

Rehabilitation research returns orphaned cheetahs to the wild
- A long-running program in Namibia has shown how orphaned cheetahs can be successfully rewilded, presenting a rehabilitation template for wild-born, captive-bred individuals of other species.
- The program by the Cheetah Conservation Fund took in 86 young cheetahs orphaned due to human-wildlife conflict, and eventually released 36 of them between 2004 and 2018.
- Twenty-seven of the cheetahs eventually became independent in the wild, while one female went on to raise two cubs — the “pinnacle of success” for any wildlife reintroduction effort.
- The study authors and independent experts agree that having safe release sites — where the newly reintroduced animals won’t run the risk of conflict with humans or other predators — and rigorous post-release monitoring are key to rehabilitation success.

Reframing trophy hunting’s socio-economic benefits in Namibia (commentary)
- Namibia is often cited as a case study to make arguments for trophy hunting, a morally contentious practice that has been adapted into a conservation strategy there by various stakeholders including community-based conservancies.
- But a 2016 study of the total revenue generated by trophy hunting revealed that 92% went to ‘freehold’ landowners, over 70% of whom are white, while less than 8% went to communal conservancies.
- If we are sincere about aligning environmental and social justice, then centering trophy hunting related debates in Namibia around racial inequalities would be an essential and meaningful step, a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Export of elephants to UAE drags Namibia wildlife policy into the spotlight
- Conservation groups have slammed the Namibian government’s decision to capture 22 wild elephants and export them to zoos in the United Arab Emirates.
- They contend the animals were taken from a fragile, desert-adapted population herd, and that splitting up the group this way affects the welfare of both the captured elephants and those left behind.
- The government denies this, and has justified the export as a solution to the human-wildlife conflict that’s the flip side of decades of successful conservation policy.
- One of the recipients of the elephants in the UAE, Al Ain Zoo, is a member of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria; the latter has expressed concern over the deal’s “extreme lack of transparency” and said Al Ain Zoo could face unspecified sanctions.

ReconAfrica pushes ahead with Namibia oil exploration amid claims of violations
- Canadian oil and gas company ReconAfrica has announced it will enter a second phase of petroleum exploration in Namibia.
- Campaigners and community members say the company has not conducted the environmental impact assessments necessary to extend its operations.
- The company has been accused of violating several laws by encroaching on people’s land and into untouched forests.
- Opponents of the company’s activities say they will consider legal action if the violations continue.

UK trophy hunting import ban not supported by rural Africans (commentary)
- While a UK bill to ban the import of hunting trophies enjoys popular support there, rural Africans directly affected by such decisions are voicing opposition.
- Researchers tasked by the Namibian government surveyed local people and conservation leaders with insight on the challenges and benefits of elephant conservation.
- Animal rights campaigners “must take responsibility for the damages caused by elephants. They should come and experience what is happening on the ground. It is not easy to live with wild animals and not benefit from them,” one respondent argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

‘A leap of faith’: Q&A with Robin Radcliffe on airlifting rhinos upside down
- Translocation of animals is not new; what is new is hanging them upside down by their feet under a helicopter, a method pioneered by the African nation of Namibia to transport endangered rhinos.
- A team of researchers recently won an Ig Nobel, a satirical take on the prestigious Nobel prizes that celebrate science at its quirky best, for studying how rhinos fare when transported in this manner.
- Mongabay spoke to Robin Radcliffe, a veterinarian at Cornell University and lead author of a new paper on aerial transportation of rhinos about the importance of doing this work.

Growing concern over Okavango oil exploration as community alleges shutout
- Public consultations are under way for 450 kilometers (280 miles) of seismic surveys, the next phase of oil exploration in northeastern Namibia.
- Critics say the consultations offer only limited public participation, preventing members of affected communities from attending or understanding the unfolding process.
- There is also concern that a series of incremental environmental impact assessments potentially obscures the full implications of ReconAfrica’s ultimate goal of oil production in this region, which may include fracking.

Namibia to sell off wild elephants in controversial auction
- Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism (MEFT) plans to finalize an auction of 170 of its wild elephants on Friday, January 29.
- The auction has been met with sharp criticism by conservationists who have questioned the population data and claims of human-elephant conflict that are being used to justify the sale.
- MEFT has argued that the auction is necessitated by a tripling in the country’s elephant population from about 7,500 in 1995 to about 24,000 individuals today, which the ministry asserts is damaging ecosystems, increasing the incidence of conflict between pachyderms and farmers, and heightening the risk of poaching.
- Conservationists however dispute that data.

Alarm as exploratory drilling for oil begins in northern Namibia
- Reconnaissance Energy Africa, an oil and gas company with headquarters in Canada, has recently begun exploratory drilling in northern Namibia.
- Conservationists and local communities are concerned over the potential environmental impact that oil and gas extraction could have on such an important ecosystem.
- Northern Namibia and Botswana have a number of interconnected watersheds including the Okavango Delta – the potential for pollutants to enter watercourses and spread throughout the region are a particular concern.

Tribute to Garth Owen-Smith, African conservationist (commentary)
- Garth Owen-Smith was one of the pioneers of Namibia’s community conservancy system.
- That system links Namibian wildlife conservation with sustainable rural development, and has since become a model for wildlife conservation throughout Africa.
- Owen-Smith died on April 11 after a long battle with cancer.
- This obituary was submitted by the team of the Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation. The views expressed are those of the authors.

Simba’s future depends on putting communities at the forefront of lion conservation (commentary)
- While Simba and Mufasa’s return to the big screen is good news for Disney and summer movie fans, in the quarter-century since the original animated version of The Lion King was released, Africa’s lion population has declined by roughly half. With only about 20,000 lions remaining in Africa, and their historic range having contracted by over 80 percent, the lion’s future is increasingly uncertain.
- In the face of these challenges, lion conservation is becoming a more urgent priority, particularly given the important role that lions play in African economies through wildlife tourism. In Tanzania, for example, home to perhaps half of all the remaining wild lions left in the world, lions are a cornerstone of a national tourism industry that earns over $2 billion annually and accounts for roughly a quarter of all foreign exchange earnings.
- Fortunately, when conservation programs are able to provide people with reasons to support lion conservation, local communities can become key stewards of lions and other wildlife.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

‘Let us trade’: Debate over ivory sales rages ahead of CITES summit
- Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe want to sell off their ivory stocks to raise money for conservation.
- Growing human and elephant populations in these southern African countries have provoked increased human-wildlife conflict, and the governments see legal ivory sales as a way to generate revenue for conservation and development funding.
- Other countries, most notably Kenya, oppose the proposal, on the grounds that previous legal sales stimulated demand for ivory and coincided with a sharp increase in poaching.

Community conservation in Namibia requires balance and understanding (commentary)
- In a recent article, John Grobler recounted his experiences from a one-week visit to Nyae Nyae Conservancy in Namibia. Mr. Grobler’s report, based on brief experiences in Nyae Nyae and a cursory study of the Namibian conservancy system, leaves much to be desired.
- Grobler implies that the Namibian conservancy program has been less successful in terms of conserving wildlife and providing benefits to local people than the government and supporting NGOs claim. In order to judge the Namibian conservancies, one needs to first place them within the broader African conservation context.
- This context allows us to examine a more central question about conservancies, one that has been incorrectly answered by many. What exactly are Namibian conservancies, and what is their purpose?
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Bird flu in Namibia’s penguins wanes, after killing nearly 500
- More than 450 African penguins, an IUCN-listed endangered animal, have died in an outbreak of bird flu on three islands off the coast of Namibia.
- The virus, H5N8, is thought to have been introduced to the colonies, which hold 96 percent of Namibia’s penguins, by another bird traveling from South Africa, where a similar outbreak occurred in 2018.
- The disease appears to be abating, and researchers are hopeful that the country’s penguins will recover.
- However, they continue to face threats from food shortages caused by overfishing and climate change.

It pays, but does it stay? Hunting in Namibia’s community conservation system
- Namibia has designated about 20 percent of its area as 82 communal conservancies run by local communities. Of these, about two-thirds have hunting rights. They retain a portion of their allocated quota to hunt for food for the local community, and sell a portion to professional hunters, who in turn bring in trophy hunters.
- In theory, it’s a win-win: income and development opportunities for impoverished local people that give them a reason to preserve their wildlife, while using hunting as a tool to keep the species in balance.
- A visit to the system’s first and most successful conservancy, Nyae Nyae in remote northeastern Namibia, raises questions about how well the system is currently working for either the local San community or their wildlife.

AI and public data identify fishing behavior to protect hungry seabirds
- In an effort to reduce albatross deaths as bycatch of longline fishing, Global Fishing Watch (GFW) and Birdlife International researchers are using machine learning models to determine if fishing vessels are setting their lines at night, a recommended technique to avoid accidentally killing albatrosses.
- Mapping fishing vessel behavior involved training new models to recognize when a long-line ship is setting its line.
- This new application broadens the range of GFW’s toolkit to combine machine learning and public data to protect marine wildlife and better manage fisheries.
- Results of the new algorithm formed the basis of a January 2019 regulatory decision by the South Pacific Regional Management Organization.

10 ways conservation tech shifted into auto in 2018
- Conservation scientists are increasingly automating their research and monitoring work, to make their analyses faster and more consistent; moreover, machine learning algorithms and neural networks constantly improve as they process additional information.
- Pattern recognition detects species by their appearance or calls; quantifies changes in vegetation from satellite images; tracks movements by fishing ships on the high seas.
- Automating even part of the analysis process, such as eliminating images with no animals, substantially reduces processing time and cost.
- Automated recognition of target objects requires a reference database: the species and objects used to create the algorithm determine the universe of species and objects the system will then be able to identify.

Panama, Namibia plan to reveal fishing fleet data via online map
- Panama and Namibia have planned to publicly share information on their fishing fleet in their waters via the open-access mapping tool by Global Fishing Watch (GFW).
- Both nations say such a move would be crucial in improving transparency in fisheries management and protecting their oceans.
- GFW’s mapping platform provides both general data for the public and more detailed information seen only by authorities.
- The tool helps identify if a boat is fishing during the closed season of a particular species; if it enters an unauthorized area; or if it sails into a protected area.

The bioethics of wildlife intervention (commentary)
- As health care professionals, veterinarians are uniquely positioned to address complex ethical issues involving human, animal, and ecosystem health — a concept aptly known as “One Health.” This initiative governs the core of conservation medicine and reflects the interrelationship and transdisciplinary approach needed to ultimately ensure the wellbeing of all.
- Veterinarians regularly wrestle with whether their actions are restorative or destructive, and reflect on a track record of gratifying wins and unsavory losses to learn from.
- Given our substantial roles in the fate of conservation, it is imperative to debate the significance of interventional efforts and whether they can be rationalized.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Automating drone-based wildlife surveys saves time and money, study finds
- Reserve managers have begun to survey wildlife in savanna ecosystems by analyzing thousands of images captured using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones), a time-consuming process.
- A research team has developed machine learning models that analyze such aerial images and automatically identify those images most likely to contain animals, which, according to the authors, is usually a small fraction of the total number of images taken during a UAV survey effort.
- The new algorithms reduced the number of images that needed human verification to less than one-third of that using earlier models, and they highlight the patterns in those images that are most likely to be animals, making the technique useful for image-based surveys of large landscapes with animals in relatively few images.

U.S. court ruling complicates Trump’s elephant and lion policy
- A federal appeals court has found that the Obama administration did not follow proper procedures in 2014 when it banned importing elephant trophies from Zimbabwe. The USFWS failed to seek public comment at the time, among other infractions.
- This new ruling puts the Trump administration decision, made in November, ending the ban and allowing elephant trophy hunting imports, into question.
- Further complicating matters is Trump’s dubbing of the November USFWS decision as a “horror show,” and his putting of the policy on hold awaiting his response. To date, Trump has said nothing further.
- The way things stand now, U.S. hunters can import elephant trophies from South Africa and Namibia. They can import lion body parts from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia. But the legality of importing elephant trophies from Zambia and Zimbabwe remains in limbo.

Scientists call for cheetahs to be listed as Endangered
- Only about 3,577 adult cheetahs remain in southern Africa, a new study has found.
- More than 50 percent of these animals live on unprotected lands, where they are sometimes persecuted due to conflict with local farmers.
- Revising the status of the cheetah from Vulnerable to Endangered on the IUCN Red List could help conservationists create more awareness about the species and “open more avenues to fund conservation and population monitoring efforts,” researchers say.

When it comes to rhino conservation, Asia and Africa can learn a lot from each other
- Despite its proximity to Asian markets for trafficked rhino horn, Nepal has lost only four rhinos to poaching since 2011.
- Experts credit this success to a combination of top-down enforcement and efforts to involve the community in conservation.
- Protected areas in Africa that have collaborated with area residents have shown promising results, suggesting lessons from Nepal can be successfully applied elsewhere.
- In turn, conservationists say Nepal can benefit from African countries’ expertise in promoting wildlife tourism, and alternate models of benefit sharing.

Namibia’s low cost, sustainable solution to seabird bycatch
- Accidental take of marine animals by commercial fisheries is a serious global environmental problem, with 40 percent of the world’s ocean fishing totals disposed of as bycatch annually.
- Roughly 63 billion pounds of unwanted wildlife — seabirds, marine mammals and sea turtles, countless fish species, rays, and cephalopods — are killed as bycatch due to the swallowing of baited hooks or entanglement in nets.
- Namibia, once known as the “world’s worst fishery” regarding avian bycatch is addressing the problem. It has installed “bird-scaring” lines on the nation’s 70 trawlers and on its 12 longline fishing vessels, and has also adopted other low cost methods to minimize avian bycatch, which once killed more than 30,000 birds annually.
- The Meme Itumbapo Women’s Group, known for its seashell necklaces and other jewelry, is now sustainably manufacturing and supplying the bird-scaring lines from their headquarters “Bird’s Paradise,” in Walvis Bay, Namibia. The hope is that these combined efforts will reduce avian bycatch by 85-90 percent in the near future.

Trophy hunters overstate contribution of big game hunting to African economies: Report
- Humane Society International (HSI) timed the release of the report to coincide with the start of Safari Club International’s (SCI) annual convention in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 1.
- US-based SCI, one of the world’s largest trophy hunting advocacy organizations, released a report in 2015 that claimed trophy hunting-related tourism contributes $426 million annually to the economies of eight African countries and creates more than 53,400 full- and part-time jobs.
- But the HSI report, prepared by Melbourne, Australia-based consultancy Economists At Large, found that SCI had “grossly overstated the contribution of big game hunting to eight African economies and that overall tourism in Africa dwarfs trophy hunting as a source of revenue,” according to a statement.

Ecological trap ensnares endangered African penguins
- Juveniles of the Western Cape population of African penguins, an IUCN-listed endangered species, still frequent a subpar hunting ground, even though other options are within reach.
- This population of penguins has declined by 80 percent in recent decades.
- The current research projects that Western Cape penguin numbers are half of what they would be without this ecological trap.

From ‘Silverbacks’ to Systems Leaders: Rethinking African conservation leadership (commentary)
- Conservation efforts in Africa, and many other parts of the world as well, need to prioritize leadership development as a focal strategy.
- Leadership development opportunities need to be made accessible to individuals who need them most.
- This post is a commentary — the views expressed are those of the authors.

Toxic beetles and poisonous plants: Study reveals how southern Africa’s ‘bushmen’ make deadly poison arrows
- A new study sheds light on how Kalahari’s San peoples source and prepare poison for poison arrows.
- Some communities use toxic beetle larvae, such as those of Diamphidia, as well as plant poisons, such as the juice of Sansevieria aethiopica plants to help reinforce the quality of the poison, researchers have found.
- Knowledge about the toxic component in the poisonous beetles and plants could potentially have medical applications, researchers add.

2015 was the worst year on record for rhino poaching in Africa
- South Africa, ground zero of rhino poaching in Africa, today reported a slight drop in the number of animals killed last year, but that decrease was more than offset by significant increases in neighboring countries.
- In Zimbabwe, poachers killed 12 rhinos in 2014 and a widely reported total of “at least 50” in 2015, while rhino deaths in Namibia also rose sharply, from 24 in 2014 to 80 last year.
- A number of rhino conservation measures were agreed to last week at the 66th Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Running Wild with Cheetah Expert Laurie Marker
- Dr. Laurie Marker studies the intersection of cheetah ecology and human activities
- If we want to save the cheetah, we need to take what we know from research and apply it start linking landscapes and planning human development
- Improving electricity and internet coverage to Africa can create alternative livelihoods in rural communities and pay big dividends in reducing land pressure on wildlife

Disappearing giraffes
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
- Two recent meetings assessed the conservation status of giraffes and okapis.
- The number of giraffes has almost been cut in half within the last few decades.

How black rhinos and local communities help each other in Namibia
- Africa’s rhinos are in a state of crisis.
- Poaching for their horn has resulted in the deaths of thousands of animals and pushed the continent’s two species—the white and black rhino—against the wall.
- Yet, despite the crisis, there are pockets of rhino territory where poaching remains rare and rhinos live comparatively unmolested.
- Indeed, one of the brightest spots for rhinos is in Namibia.

Super cute, but tiny, elephant-relative discovered in Namibia

Meet the world’s newest elephant shrew: the Etendeka round-eared sengi. Photo by: Jack Dumbacher/California Academy of Sciences. Forget marsupials, the world’s strangest group of mammals are actually those in the Afrotheria order. This superorder of mammals contains a motley crew that at first glance seems to have nothing in common: from the biggest land animals […]
Zebras for the win! Africa’s longest land migration discovered

With food and water scarce in many parts of Africa, many species migrate long-distances in order to survive. A new study published in the journal, Oryx has found a new record-breaker for the continent’s longest tracked terrestrial migration: a huge group of zebras that traveled a total distance of 500 kilometers (300 miles). The journey […]
Shoot to conserve: Corey Knowlton’s rhino hunt escalates the debate over trophy hunting and environmentalism

Corey Knowlton posing with a bongo he killed. Photo from Corey Knowlton’s Facebook page. “After a long conversation with the FBI I have decided to temporarily suspend my activity on this page. I want to thank all of you who have commented [on] this important issue of Black Rhino Conservation.” – Corey Knowlton, Feb 3, […]
Trophy hunters auction off life of Critically Endangered black rhino

The Dallas Safari Club has auctioned off a permit to shoot-and-kill a Critically Endangered black rhino in Namibia for $350,000. The club says the proceeds from the auction will aid rhino conservation, but the move has upset many wildlife organizations and attracted protestors outside the closed-door auction. In fact the issue has become so contentious […]
Top nature pictures of 2013

Transitioning to a non-profit model means that I’m spending less and less time working in the field these days, but I still managed take some photos in 2013, adding more than 15,000 to the site this year. Below are some of the highlights. A few notes: In the interest of keeping this set upbeat, I […]
600 vultures killed by elephant poachers in Namibia

As the illegal poaching of African elephants and rhinos reaches epidemic levels, other species are also suffering catastrophic losses as a direct result of poachers’ behavior. A recent incident in July, where a poisoned elephant carcass led to the death of 600 vultures near Namibia’s Bwabwata National Park, has highlighted how poachers’ use of poison […]
Worst drought in 30 years threatens millions in southern Africa with food insecurity

Around 2 million people face food insecurity in northern Namibia and southern Angola as the worst regional drought in decades takes its toll, according to the UN. Two years of failed rains have pushed families into desperate conditions in a region already known for its desert-like conditions. In Namibia alone, experts estimate that over 100,000 […]
Cheetah don’t overheat during hunts

Study finds that contrary to popular opinion, cheetah don’t overheat during hunts. But their body temperature rises after successful hunts due to stress that another predator may seize their prey. In a 4,500 hectare cheetah rehabilitation camp in the middle of Namibia, researchers observe the large, spotted carnivores as they readjust to wild life. This […]
Mad Max sequel runs over sensitive desert ecosystem in Namibia

The Namib is the oldest desert on Earth, composed of gravel plains and dune fields that have been intact for circa 40 million years. It forms a thin strip along the coast of southwestern Africa running for approximately 2000 km from Namibia into Angola. Its unique assemblage of flora and fauna are specialised for desert […]
Ten African nations pledge to transform their economies to take nature into account

African elephants at Chobe River in Botswana. Photo by: Tiffany Roufs. Last month ten African nations, led by Botswana, pledged to incorporate “natural capital” into their economies. Natural capital, which seeks to measure the economic worth of the services provided by ecosystems and biodiversity—for example pollination, clean water, and carbon—is a nascent, but growing, method […]
Animal picture of the day: tracking cheetahs in Namibia

Cheetahs fitted with collars. Photo by: N/a’an ku se Research Project. Click to enlarge. The N/a’an ku se Carnivore Conservation Research Project in Namibia has recently been tracking a male cheetah named Boris. After caught hunting in a game farm, Boris was captured, tagged with a radio collar for GPS tracking, and released back into […]
Animal picture of the day: jackal on the beach

A black-backed jackal on a beach in Namibia . Photo by: Nancy Butler. The black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas) is the world’s oldest canine according to fossils, beating out wolves and coyotes. The most daring of the world’s jackals, the black-backed often hunts animals several times larger than itself. Though, the jackal feeds on pretty much […]
Picture of the day: 4×4 driving down a giant sand dune in Namibia

4×4 driving down a giant sand dune in Namibia. Photo by Nancy Butler (2011). Namibia, a country in Southern Africa located north of South Africa and south of Angola, has in recent decades emerged as a top destination for nature enthusiasts. Mild weather, rich wildlife, and picturesque landscapes are major draws. Many visitors to Namibia […]
NASA Photos: beyond Mississippi flood, southern Africa sees record deluges

A shelf cloud passes over one of the driest regions on the African continent: the Namib desert. The shelf cloud is associated with a high-precipitation supercell thunderstorm. Photo courtesy of NASA. While record crests of the Mississippi River are creating havoc in the southern US, this is not the only region in the world facing […]

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