28 Jun 2022

Desert Elephant Conservation Study Returns to Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp

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In April 2022 Wilderness Safaris played proud host to the principal researchers of the Desert Elephant Conservation study – Laura Brown and Rob Ramey – at its Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp in Namibia. The pair uses the camp as a base to research, monitor and count the elephant populations of the Uniab, Hoarusib and Hoanib regions.

Every year since 2005, Laura and Rob have travelled to Namibia to observe and monitor the three subpopulations of elephants as well as their social organisation and genetics. This year, they arrived in April, and will return to complete the study in October–November 2022.

The study, initially undertaken and recorded by Dr PJ Viljoen between 1977 and 1983, provided an invaluable blueprint for Laura and Rob to compare modern findings with data accumulated during a period which included the Namibian War of Independence, intensive poaching, and severe drought.

Through their 17 years of surveys, Laura and Rob have built up a comprehensive history and accurate inventory of the desert-adapted elephant population, along with photographic identification of each individual.

Historically, a precipitous decline occurred due to wartime poaching in the late 1970s and 80s. This was followed by four decades of low-level but significant human-caused mortality of adult elephants, which in addition to natural mortality and a low reproductive rate, prevented recovery of these subpopulations to pre-war levels. In fact, there are fewer elephant in the study areas than there were recorded during the height of the war in the 1980s.

As of today, 72 desert elephants make up the population in these three study areas.

  • Hoarusib River – 9  
  • Hoanib River (west of Sesfontein) – 19  
  • Uniab River Catchment – minimum count 44

By comparison, Dr Viljoen documented 86 individuals in the same area in 1981. The temporary gains made during the mid to late 2000s have been lost, primarily due to human-caused mortality, which accounts for over half of the adult elephant deaths. The low number of breeding age bulls is also a significant conservation concern – firstly, because reproduction will cease if these last few bulls are killed or die prematurely; and secondly, with so few bulls remaining, the danger of inbreeding is increased. There has also been zero immigration of male elephants from the highlands or Etosha National Park into the Hoarusib and Hoanib since 2009.

However, on a promising note, in last year’s study, Laura noted, “It is important to emphasise that boreholes are critical for desert elephant survival in the Hoanib River. Boreholes at two lodges – Wilderness Safaris Hoanib Skeleton Coast Camp and Natural Selection’s Hoanib Valley Camp – provide valuable drinking opportunities for the resident breeding herd and supplement the two Presidential Boreholes built in the 1990s”.

These camps have led to increased protection for these elephants and other wildlife because of the additional “eyes on the ground” that monitor the elephants’ wellbeing. In addition, lodges provide jobs and income for people in the local communities, making them more aware of the value of wildlife and more likely to protect it.

By supporting important projects at Hoanib’s Research Centre, including Laura and Rob’s elephant study, Dr Philip Stander’s Desert Lion Conservation Project and Emsie Verwey’s Brown Hyaena Density Survey, Wilderness hopes to contribute not just to its own conservation efforts, but to the country’s as well.