By Stijn Verschueren, 18th November 2024
Do you ever find yourself intrigued by the secret lives of Africa’s top predators, wondering where they go and how they survive when faced with limited prey and increasing human populations? Our recent study in Namibia’s Ondjou Conservancy, part of the vast Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TCA), offers some surprising insights. Despite significant human activity and low prey populations, this underexplored region is home to an impressive community of carnivores, highlighting the resilience of wildlife and the challenges of conservation in human-impacted landscapes.
A local community member and his donkey on the way to town early in the morning. Photo: Tim Hoffman.
In the 1990s, the government of Namibia introduced an innovative conservation model, designating the first communal conservancies—areas with defined borders where communities have the right to benefit from the local wildlife as well as the responsibly to manage these resources sustainably, empowering local people and aiding the recovery of wildlife populations. There are now over 80 registered conservancies, including the Ondjou Conservancy, a communal area covering 8,729 km², situated at the south-western edge of KAZA TCA, one of the world’s largest conservation landscapes. The enormous KAZA TCA spans five countries (Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and was created with the aim of protecting biodiversity and promoting sustainable tourism while supporting local livelihoods. However, managing such an extensive area with limited resources is a daunting task and can lead to peripheral regions, such as Ondjou, becoming neglected. Although numerous research projects have been carried out in the wider KAZA TCA, understanding carnivore distribution in the hitherto understudied areas is critical. Predators play a vital role in maintaining ecosystem balance by regulating prey populations and controlling diseases, but there are still knowledge gaps regarding carnivores and their interactions with people and prey in Ondjou Conservancy, and we set out to uncover some of these mysteries.
Left: The team placing camera traps alongside roads, game trails and suspected movement paths of carnivores. Right: The camera traps were placed on fencepoles and trees, and remained active for 2 months during the dry season. Photos: Tim Hoffman (left) and Stijn Verschueren (right).
By setting up camera traps at 35 locations across an area of 2,304 km², we captured images of 18 carnivore species in Ondjou Conservancy, including African wild dogs, cheetahs and leopards—all of which are threatened. The most frequently detected carnivores were brown hyaenas, black-backed jackals and striped polecats, each being detected over 400 times! This diversity is remarkable given the high level of human disturbance and low prey populations—in 317,758 images, we only identified eight different prey species, possibly a result of years of overhunting and poaching in the region. Our findings reveal a complex interplay between carnivores, prey and people. The cameras further away from the main village captured more photos of carnivores, as did those near the neighbouring Nyae Nyae Conservancy, a well-managed area with abundant wildlife. This suggests that Ondjou may be involved in a source–sink dynamic, with carnivores from Nyae Nyae migrating into Ondjou. The limited prey base in this area may threaten the long-term survival of carnivores there and could mean Ondjou is a population sink rather than a safe haven.
Left: The brown hyaena Parahyaena brunnea was the carnivore most frequently detected by our camera traps. Right: Threatened carnivores including the cheetah Acinonyx jubatus were also photo-captured in Ondjou Conservancy. Photos: EcoView (left) and Sheril (right), Adobe Stock.
The presence of carnivores in close proximity to human settlements emphasizes the need for effective human–wildlife coexistence strategies in the conservancy. Livestock farming is the primary livelihood in Ondjou and unprotected livestock can be an easy catch for hungry predators—especially when wild prey populations are depleted—inevitably leading to negative interactions between farmers and wildlife. Improved livestock management and protection measures are crucial to reducing these conflicts and encouraging tolerance towards wildlife within Ondjou. Addressing prey depletion is also vital—by restoring healthy natural prey populations, we can create a more balanced ecosystem, benefiting both wildlife and local communities.
Our study highlights the potential of peripheral areas such as Ondjou Conservancy to contribute to large-scale conservation efforts. However, these regions face significant challenges, including human encroachment, poaching and limited resources available for conservation. To maximize the conservation potential of KAZA TCA, it is essential to focus on these overlooked areas. Efforts should aim at enhancing connectivity between conservancies, improving wildlife management practices and engaging local communities in conservation initiatives. By doing so, we can ensure that regions like Ondjou serve as vital buffers and not ecological traps for wildlife.
Fieldwork in Ondjou Conservancy is a wild and humbling experience. Photo credit: Tim Hoffman.
Conducting research in remote areas such as Ondjou presents unique challenges and rewards. Navigating rugged terrains, sleeping in tents and working with technology out in the field can be difficult at times, but living amongst wildlife in the African bush and capturing elusive nocturnal predators in our camera-trap images brought us a huge sense of achievement. Our findings in Ondjou Conservancy depict a hopeful yet complex picture of carnivore conservation in human-impacted landscapes. By prioritizing conservation efforts in peripheral areas and fostering human–wildlife coexistence, we can ensure the long-term survival of these valued species, the ecosystems they support and the human communities living alongside them.
The article ‘High carnivore richness despite human pressure and prey depletion in southwestern region of the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area’ is available open access in Oryx—The International Journal of Conservation.
