Elephant population
Elephant population

Elephant population at more than 24 000

Ellanie Smit
The latest estimates indicate that more than 24 000 elephants can be found in Namibia, with a population growth rate of 5.36% per year.

There are about 160 elephants in private ownership in the country.

However, Namibia’s successful elephant conservation story does not come without its challenges, Kenneth Uiseb, deputy director of wildlife research and monitoring at the environment ministry, said.

Speaking at a national conference on human-wildlife conflict management, he said: “We are not managing or conserving elephants to increase their numbers. We are satisfied with the numbers we have”.

Uiseb added that elephants are now found almost everywhere in the country and wherever they go, they get into conflict with people for two main reasons: Water and food.

“Our population has increased consistently over three decades while the national elephant distribution has also expanded across the country.”

According to him, everywhere else, elephant numbers are declining and their distribution is contracting.

Bulk of population

The illegal killing of elephants was a big problem in 2015/2016, however this has reduced significantly, Uiseb said.

He added that the bulk of Namibia’s elephant population is found in the north-eastern parts of the country, and 21 000 elephants can be found in Namibia’s part of the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA).

On the desert-adapted elephants in the Kunene Region, Uiseb said that while there were about 120 elephants in 1975, this population has declined drastically due to poaching, droughts and other reasons.

“This is the population the ministry is specifically interested in to implement conservation measures. Here we are talking about how we conserve the population so that they remain in that area, they remain viable and that they do not go extinct. At the rate that we are going now and without intervention, they might disappear.”

Areas that have been identified as human-elephant conflict hotspots include around Omatjete in the Erongo Region, Kamanjab and Otjikondu, he said.

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Namibian Sun 2025-02-14

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Nam 2.22 SAME | Oryx Properties Ltd 12.1 UP 1.70% | Paratus Namibia Holdings 11.99 SAME | SBN Holdings 8.45 SAME | Trustco Group Holdings Ltd 0.48 SAME | B2Gold Corporation 47.34 DOWN 1.50% | Local Index closed 677.62 UP 0.12% | Overall Index closed 1534.6 DOWN 0.05% | Osino Resources Corp 19.47 DOWN 2.41% | Commodities: Gold US$ 2 883.41/OZ DOWN -0.0163 | Copper US$ 4.62/lb DOWN -0.0281 | Zinc US$ 2 857.30/T DOWN -0.07% | Brent Crude Oil US$ 74.96/BBP DOWN -0.0093 | Platinum US$ 1 001.40/OZ DOWN -0.0361