A trio of male lions died earlier this month after they were poisoned—but they weren’t just any big cats. They were three of the five brothers, known as “the five musketeers,” who starred in the film Vanishing Kings: Lions of the Namib, which aired on the National Geographic Channel earlier this year. The film traced […]
Tag: Namibia
POLL: Should the sale of elephant ivory be legalized?
World Elephant Day was not necessarily good news for Africa’s elephants: Pressure is mounting in southern Africa to lift the ban on the sale of ivory. In the mid-1980s, during the last great elephant poaching crisis, Africa lost nearly half its elephant population, roughly 600,000 animals, in a decade. But the world responded in 1989 […]
POLL: Should Zimbabwe and Namibia be allowed to sell their ivory stockpiles?
A huge legal sale of ivory intended to cut elephant poaching instead catastrophically backfired by dramatically increasing elephant deaths, according to new research. The revelation comes just months before a decision on whether to permit another legal sale and against a backdrop of more African elephants being killed for ivory than are being born. In […]
Why Elephants Are As Ritualistic and Violent As the Mafia
Every summer, Caitlin O’Connell, author of Elephant Don: The Politics of a Pachyderm Posse, packs her bags and travels to northern Namibia to study a group of male elephants. What she witnesses as the males jockey for power and position around a water hole is both shocking and heart-warming: violent conflicts, tender scenes of affection. […]
Texas man who won hunting auction to be allowed to import black rhino trophy
The US government will allow a Texas man to import the trophy of an endangered black rhinoceros if he kills one in Africa as part of a conservation fundraiser. The US Fish and Wildlife Service said on Thursday that importing a carcass from Namibia meets criteria under the Endangered Species Act of benefiting conservation. Corey […]
Video: Netgunning Black Wildebeest From Helicopter
The black wildebeest or white-tailed gnu (Connochaetes gnou) is one of the two closely related wildebeest species. The natural populations of black wildebeest, endemic to the southern part of Africa, were almost completely exterminated in the 19th century, due to their reputation as pests and the value of their hides and meat. However, the species […]
Shake if Off
All is quiet, except for the sound of doves and guinea fowl in the distance. The sky is bright blue on a winter’s morning. I am sitting in an underground research bunker in Etosha National Park in Namibia. He approaches from the southeast, ambling like they usually do. His footfalls are quiet, eerily quiet, like […]
An Elephantine Moment
Wildlife photography, to me, is about telling the stories of nature and conveying a sense of the wonder of God’s creation to my viewers. As a photographer, you need to be able to use all the tools at your disposal to do this. Besides the obvious – your camera and lens and the right settings […]