This archive of reports of wildlife surveys in Namibia aims to:
Public access to information is a vital component of ensuring community engagement in prevalent issues. Wildlife surveys are critical to determine the health of wildlife populations and determine trends over time to guide conservation and management actions.
Wildlife surveys are done for different species using methods that are suited to counting them (e.g. by air or road) in their natural habitats. Such surveys need to be repeated over time to detect long-term trends and inform conservation managers. The Namibian government, non-governmental organisations and private reserves all conduct regular surveys covering different parts of Namibia and targeting different species. This archive will thus serve as a repository of our collective knowledge of the trends and status of a variety of species occurring throughout Namibia.
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Namibia's elephants extend across the north of the country. They occur in six main areas of the known Namibian range - the north-west, Etosha National Park (NP), Mangetti National Park, northern Kavango, Khaudum National Park/Nyae Nyae Conservancy and Zambezi Region. Seasonal changes in distribution are related to water availability. There are movements of elephants between Namibia and its neighbours, particularly Botswana, and mainly from Zambezi Region. The largest populations are found in the north-east of the country, in Khaudum/Nyae Nyae and Zambezi Region.
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Namibias elephants_population_distribution and trends.pdf | 2.21 MB |
Estimating abundance of wildlife populations can be challenging and costly, especially for species that are difficult to detect and that live at low densities, such as cougars (Puma concolor). Remote, motion‐sensitive cameras are a relatively efficient monitoring tool, but most abundance estimation techniques using remote cameras rely on some or all of the population being uniquely identifiable. Recently developed methods estimate abundance from encounter rates with remote cameras and do not require identifiable individuals.
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Estimating abundance of an unmarked_low_density species using cameras.pdf | 590.21 KB |
Carnivore populations face threats from increasing human populations and rapidly diminishing, suitable habitat. Large carnivores such as African lions (Panthera leo) commonly attack livestock on lands adjacent to protected areas. This can lead to human-wildlife conflict (HWC) events that result in retaliatory lion killings. Conflict is a primary driver of wild lion population declines which are estimated to have decreased by 43% in the last 20 years.
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Etosha National Park Carnivore Monitoring Project_Lion GPS_Satelllite Monitoring.pdf | 2.09 MB |
Human and, increasingly, elephant pressure on Namibia's wetlands and riparian belts are a major cause of conservation concern. Many wetland birds are listed in Namibia's Red Data Book (Simmons & Brown in prep) because of population declines caused by the degradation and destruction of wetland habitats, and because of high levels of disturbance. Good information on the status of major wetlands and their avifauna is important for their conservation management. Birds provide one of the best indicators of wetland health.
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Kwandu wetland and floodplain Bird counts Aug 2004.pdf | 349.12 KB |
This study has provided baseline data on crocodile numbers from aerial and spotlight counts. These data can be used with the results of future counts to determine population trends. The census has also provided information on their distribution of crocodiles in the Kavango and Caprivi regions. And third, it has resulted in the first population estimate for crocodiles in the north-east wetlands of Namibia.
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Crocodile Survey in NE Namibia_2004.pdf | 404.87 KB |