The dramatic wind-formed dunes in this area are among the highest sand dunes in the world. Its top desert attraction, Sossusvlei, is an extraordinary dry salt and white clay pan surrounded by the soaring red dunes of ancient Namib sands, situated in the Namib-Naukluft National Park. Namibia offers the incentive traveler a vast African adventure of the soul. Easily reached by flights from South Africa to the capital city, Windhoek, Namibia’s extraordinary landscapes and spectacular attractions have to be seen to be believed, and will never be forgotten. Namibia, an immense and sparsely populated land with seemingly endless horizons, is dominated by desert and semi-desert, with the ancient sands of the Namib Desert spilling into the Atlantic Ocean in the west, and the Kalahari extending east into neighbouring Botswana. The incredible diversity of Southern Africa includes some of the most breath-taking desert experiences in the world. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.Experience Southern Africa’s Evocative Deserts Photos: Desert elephant bull and cow photographed by Vernon Swanepoel. Tragically, the only certain outcome I can see these days is death. I have been writing about elephants now for 25 years and it's impossible to say how this will all pan out. In a few others they are mostly protected and breeding well but are also increasingly crowded into ever-shrinking habitats, putting them in conflict with both humans and their own kind as they compete for food and space. In many regions the animals are being poached into oblivion. This entire situation echoes so many of the problems facing elephants today. The fate of the elephant that attacked him is unknown as of this writing. Louw and his hunting party had reportedly received one of the nine desert elephant hunting permits. He called desert elephants "tourist attractions" and said all elephants in the country are "no longer rare.but only potentially valuable." He noted that human–wildlife conflict is increasing, and that some humans have been killed by elephant attacks.Įspecially ironic given that last point, a hunter named Johann Louw was attacked and trampled by a Namibian elephant on July 5.
Negumbo, permanent secretary of Namibia's Ministry of Environment and Tourism, wrote that the country is home to more than 20,000 elephants and the region where the hunts will take place has a total of 391 elephants with a 55 percent sex ratio. In a press release ( pdf) sent at the beginning of June, Simeon N.
Namibia, however, does not see its desert elephants as animals that are any different from the other elephants within its borders. According to the organization, the loss of adult role models would create more behavior problems in the future and also result in a loss of the population's unique mannerisms. The cull would remove half of those males. According to the Conservation Action Trust, there are only about 100 desert elephants left in Namibia, including just 18 adult males. The country says it is now home to about 600 desert elephants, a number that conservationists dispute. Namibia's desert elephants were nearly wiped out by poachers before the international ivory ban was first established in 1989. Tourists routinely travel to Namibia to volunteer in the elephants' conservation and organizations such as Desert Lion and Elephant Conservation have been set up to protect and study them. They also possess a number of unique behaviors shared by no other African elephants, such as digging wells to purify their drinking water.
The animals have a few morphological differences from savanna elephants ( Loxodonta africana), most notably their thinner bodies and wider feet. They are, however, uniquely adapted to their arid environments. The remaining seven will be killed for their trophies.ĭesert elephants, which can only be found in Namibia and Mali, are not a separate species or subspecies. Two of the bulls, including the first to be killed last month, are "problem" animals who have come into conflict with local humans. Namibia has reportedly sold nine hunting permits to foreign hunters for undisclosed amounts. Unlike most of the other elephants that die on any given day in Africa, this particular elephant was slain legally. On Saturday, June 21 one of the Republic of Namibia's rare desert elephants was felled by a hunter's rifle.
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