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The Ongava Research Centre is collecting images of cheetahs and leopards in Etosha National Park in order to provide reliable population estimates of these predators for the first time. Did you know that there is no reliable information about the number of cheetahs and leopards in the Etosha National Park? Last year, the Ongava Research Centre (ORC) therefore called on visitors to the national park to take part in a survey by sharing pictures and sightings of cheetahs and leopards.

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.

The Okavango River in Namibia, from the Angolan border just northwest of the bridge on the Trans-Caprivi highway south to the Botswana border; the entire length of the Kwandu-Linyanti-Lake Liambezi-Chobe system, including the whole Mamili National Park; and the Zambezi River for its entire length on Namibia's border, including parts of the adjacent East Caprivi floodplains, were survey from the air in September 2007.

Elephants occur across the entire north of Namibia with two main sub-populations in the north-east and the north-west. In 2004 the total population was estimated at over 16,000 animals and, allowing for underestimates on aerial surveys, the true number in 2007 is likely to be closer to 20,000. The north-western population is about 4,000 animals and includes the elephants in Etosha. This appears to be growing at about 3.3% per annum and expanding its range.

Summary of game count in north west in 2007: route statistics, animals seen, population estimates, trends.

Our present research is focussed on lions and leopards in three study sites. The Khorixas study site (10826 km2) is located in the northern Namib desert, previously known as Damaraland, and consists of an extremely arid habitat (annual rainfall 0-100mm) that stretches into the Skeleton Coast Park. This study is focussing on desert-adapted lions that frequent the Skeleton Coast Park, Torra Conservancy and the Palmwag tourism concession.

Etosha National Park has a long history of aerial game counts, the first experimental counts being conducted in the late 1960's. Only in the late 1980's were systematic sample counts introduced. A big advance in the actual procedure and analysis was made with the introduction of GPS and GIS software used since 1995. The 2000 census is the third census flown based on GPS transects and were GPS waypoints were recorded for sightings made.