Botswana's wildebeest near extinction

27 July 2011, 00:55

Botswana's wildebeest near extinction

GREG KELEBONYE
Staff Writer
MAUN: Botswana's wildebeest is on the brink of extinction and will be difficult to rejuvenate, a recent survey warns.

Conducted by Elephants Without Borders (EWB), the survey shows that wildebeest populations, especially in Ngamiland and Chobe, have dropped by nearly 90 percent over the last 15 years.

Presenting the findings of the survey here last Thursday, EWB founder Dr Michael Chase said other animals whose declining numbers were of grave concern included giraffe, kudu, lechwe, ostrich, roan, tsessebe and warthog.

"Particularly troubling is the almost 90 percent drop in the numbers of wildebeest sighted by the survey," Chase said.

"For example, in Chobe, we sighted only 500 wildebeest."

The survey blames the decline in the animals' populations on land use, habitat fragmentation, vegetation changes, drought, veterinary fences, fires and poaching.

"Bush fires tend to kill tens of animals at a go," Chase noted. "For example, in the Makgadikgadi, we saw 43 carcasses of zebra which had obviously been killed by wildfires. There is an increasing rate in poaching, which further exacerbates the situation, he said.

"In one case, poachers killed a lactating lion that had six cubs." But the population of elephant in northern Botswana remained stable at about 130,000 individuals. The study was commissioned by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks and is the most comprehensive aerial study ever conducted in Botswana, Chase said.

The survey took nearly 250 hours of flying time and flight lines totalling 25,598 kilometres over 73,478 square kilometres in the national parks of Chobe, Makgadikgadi and Nxai Pan; Moremi Game Reserve, the Okavango Delta and surrounding Wildlife Management Areas, as well as the Ngamiland, the Chobe and the Central districts. It analyzed comparative data from nine similar surveys that were conducted between 1993 and 2004.