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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So, how many elephants is too many elephants? It's a question people have wrestled with for ages. Kruger National Park, home to one of Africa's largest elephant populations, has seen their numbers grow from just a handful in the early 1900s to over 31,000 by 2020. That's a lot of elephants! A recent study using smarter aerial surveys and fancy math gives us a more clear picture of just how fast these gentle giants are multiplying. Turns out, since 2013, their numbers have been growing by about 5.3% each year.
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SA_2025_01_Big trunks bigger questions_Rethinking elephant numbers in Kruger_Conservation Action.pdf | 238.14 KB |
African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are imperiled by poaching and habitat loss. Despite global attention to the plight of elephants, their population sizes and trends are uncertain or unknown over much of Africa. To conserve this iconic species, conservationists need timely, accurate data on elephant populations. Here, we report the results of the Great Elephant Census (GEC), the first continent-wide, standardized survey of African savannah elephants. We also provide the first quantitative model of elephant population trends across Africa.
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Continent_wide survey reveals massive decline in African savannah elephants.pdf | 392.74 KB |
Knowledge of a species' ranging behaviour is both fundamental to understanding its behavioural ecology and a prerequisite to planning its management. Few data exist on the spatial ecology of cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus outside protected areas, but such areas are particularly important to their conservation. Cheetahs on Namibian farmlands occupied exceptionally large home ranges, averaging 1651km2 (1594km2), with no detectable effect of sex, social grouping or seasonality.
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Spatial ecology of cheetahs.pdf | 1.27 MB |
Modern works on the distribution of Ungulate Mammals in South West Africa are those of Wilhelm (1931), Shortridge (1934) and Bigalke (1958). Older accounts are those of Fischer (1914) and that published by the German Colonial Office in 1913. The purpose of the present study has been to determine the distribution and approximate sizes of the populations of Kudu, Gemsbok, Springbok, Eland, Hartebeest and Hartmann's Mountain Zebra primarily in the farming areas of the Territory, but including also the distribution in the Bantu Reserves within the border of the Police Zone (Fig. 1…