Stories & galleries

Safari report back: My epic mobile tented adventure through the wildlife paradise of Botswana – Okavango, Khwai and Savute. By Ruzdi Ekenheim

A casual search of some of South Africa’s biggest online marketplaces shows just how easily endangered wildlife species are reduced to their parts – and how simple it is to sell them online while retaining anonymity.

With wild lions under pressure from so many threats, this is a wonderful story of lions being reintroduced to an area that used to have lions.

Zambia’s wildlife paradise and legendary safari mecca of Luangwa Valley may in future partially function as one giant tap for some of Zambia’s growing water needs. Gone will be the seasonal, natural water cycles that sustain and nurture this incredibly fecund river valley. You see, a sizeable chunk of Luangwa Valley may be dammed in the near future, at Ndevu Gorge

An alternative, constructive perspective to the Greater Kruger Protected Area is offered, in contrast to the more acrimonious narratives that are doing the rounds in response to the hunting of a lion in the area.

Climate change is one of the biggest threats to life on this planet, and there is a sad irony that baobabs which are known as ‘the trees of life’, are amongst the first casualties.

Botswana’s parliament has adopted a motion requesting the government to consider lifting the ban on the hunting of elephants in areas that are not designated as game reserves and national parks.

The world’s largest private rhino breeder, John Hume, is on the verge of bankruptcy, leaving questions open as to what will happen to his 1,626 southern white rhinos.

It’s hard to comprehend that giraffe numbers have plummeted by almost 40% in just three decades. This rapid slide now places them amongst the most threatened species on the planet, with only approximately 98,445 (subsequently increased to 115,322) individuals remaining across this massive African continent! A population collapse of this nature could conceivably be driven …

Continue reading “Giraffes – The Silent Extinction”

In light of the recent backlash against Namibia for the death of a desert-adapted lion, Dr Chris Brown, CEO of the Namibia Chamber of Environment, responds to a foreign national’s questions regarding Namibia’s management of lions in the wild.

Two steps forward, one step back in pangolin conservation. Liberia is a country in West Africa that has overcome civil war, battled through the Ebola crisis and is currently recovering from the impacts. But there is one more issue to confront – the illegal wildlife and bushmeat trade.

A new carnivore protection ranger force, the Limpopo Lion Protection Team, has been trained and deployed – specifically assigned to support the Greater Limpopo Carnivore Programme and tasked with securing known lion ranges from targeted lion poaching.