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Namibian Wildlife Surveys archive
This archive of reports of wildlife surveys in Namibia aims to:
- provide easy public access to published information and statistics
- enable easy stakeholder access to recent and historical data on wildlife populations
- provide a comprehensive archive of wildlife survey reports in Namibia
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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We compiled data from our research (2006-2025) along with published accounts dating back to 1975 on the desert-dwelling elephant population in our study area of Skeleton Coast National Park and western Kunene region. This includes the Hoarusib River, Hoanib River, and Uniab River sub populations. Our analysis of the data reveal the profound influence that human-caused elephant mortality has had on the population over this time period. An initial precipitous decline occurred due to wartime poaching in the 1980s.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Status and distribution of desert_dwelling elephants in the Hoarusib_Hoanib_and Uniab River_2025.pdf | 628.13 KB |
Following several years of preparation, the KAZA Elephant Survey (2022) commenced on 22 August 2022 and ran until 28 October 2022. The primary objective of the survey was to obtain a relatively precise and accurate estimate of the number of African savanna elephants (hereafter elephants) in the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), by synchronising data collection, particularly in areas of transboundary elephant movement.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| KAZA Elephant Survey 2022_Volume I_Results and Technical Report.pdf | 17.86 MB |
| KAZA Elephant Survey 2022_Fact Sheet.pdf | 5.07 MB |
| KAZA Elephant Survey 2022_Press Release.pdf | 94.71 KB |
| KAZA Elephant Survey 2022_Communique.pdf | 138.44 KB |
The following data on elephants of the Hoarusib, Hoanib, and Uniab river drainages is based on exact counts of known individuals from our photo ID database.
In the Hoarusib River, a third of the remaining elephant population was lost in 2019. From a total of 16 elephants in 2018, there are now only 11 that remain. All the elephants were in poor condition due to the extensive drought that has affected the region and killed most of the cattle. The ongoing drought, in combination with continuing human-wildlife conflict, has had a serious impact on elephants and other wildlife species as well.
The coastal population of common bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus found in Namibia is regionally isolated and unique. This population faces several potential anthropogenic threats, especially in Walvis Bay, including boat-based tourism, a commercial harbour undergoing expansion, and aquaculture for oysters and mussels. Between 2008 and 2012, 238 boat-based surveys were conducted, resulting in 170 encounters with bottlenose dolphins. Overall, group sizes varied from 1 to 45 individuals (mean 10.7).
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Tursiops truncatus in Walvis Bay.pdf | 2.67 MB |
Knowledge of the occurrence and distribution of cetaceans is particularly important for conservation and management, but is still limited within Namibian waters. We collated 3211 cetacean records from the Namibian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for the period 2008 to 2016 and applied the principle of minimum cross entropy (MinxEnt) to predict habitat suitability. MinxEnt is a generalised form of maximum entropy modelling that allows incorporation of additional information such as sampling bias.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Predicting large_scale habitat suitability for cetaceans off Namibia using MinxEnt.pdf | 2.91 MB |
We compiled data from our research (2006-2018) along with published accounts dating back to 1975 on the desert-dwelling elephant population in our study area of Skeleton Coast National Park and western Kunene region. This includes the Hoarusib-Hoanib, and Uniab subpopulations. Our analysis of the data reveal the profound influence that humancaused mortality has had on the population. An initial precipitous decline occurred due to wartime poaching (1980s).