Maasai Mara, also sometimes spelled Masai Mara and locally known simply as The Mara, is a large national game reserve in Narok, Kenya, contiguous with the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It is named in honour of the Maasai people, the ancestral inhabitants of the area, who migrated to the area from the Nile Basin. Their description of the area when looked at from afar: "Mara" means "spotted" in the local Maasai language, because of the short bushy trees which dot the landscape.
Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the hunting privileges of nobility and territorial rulers.
The black rhinoceros, black rhino or hook-lipped rhinoceros is a species of rhinoceros, native to eastern Africa and southern Africa, including Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Although the species is referred to as black, its colours vary from brown to grey. It is the only extant species of the genus Diceros.
The Okavango Delta in Botswana is a vast inland delta formed where the Okavango River reaches a tectonic trough at an altitude of 930–1,000 m in the central part of the endorheic basin of the Kalahari.
A rhinoceros, commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae; it can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species of the superfamily Rhinocerotoidea. Two of the extant species are native to Africa, and three to South and Southeast Asia.
The white rhinoceros, white rhino or square-lipped rhinoceros is the largest extant species of rhinoceros. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species. The white rhinoceros consists of two subspecies: the southern white rhinoceros, with an estimated 16,803 wild-living animals, and the much rarer northern white rhinoceros. The northern subspecies has very few remaining individuals, with only two confirmed left in 2018. Sudan, the world's last known male northern white rhinoceros, died in Kenya on 19 March 2018 at age 45.
Namibia is one of few countries in the world to specifically address habitat conservation and protection of natural resources in their constitution. Article 95 states, "The State shall actively promote and maintain the welfare of the people by adopting international policies aimed at the following: maintenance of ecosystems, essential ecological processes, and biological diversity of Namibia, and utilization of living natural resources on a sustainable basis for the benefit of all Namibians, both present and future.".
Blythe Loutit née Pascoe was a founder member of the Save the Rhino Trust (SRT), an artist and a respected conservationist.
The Kalahari Acacia-Baikiaea woodlands are an ecoregion located in Botswana, northern Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) is an international conservation organization created with the intent of preserving Africa's wildlife, wild lands, and natural resources.
The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (SWT) operates an orphan elephant rescue and wildlife rehabilitation program in Kenya. It was founded in 1977 by Dame Daphne Sheldrick to honor her late husband, David Sheldrick. Since 2001, it has been run by their daughter, Angela Sheldrick.
The Ol Pejeta Conservancy is a 360 km2 (140 sq mi) not-for-profit wildlife conservancy in Central Kenya's Laikipia County. It is situated on the equator west of Nanyuki, between the foothills of the Aberdares and Mount Kenya. The Ol Pejeta Conservancy works to conserve wildlife, provide a sanctuary for great apes, and generate income through wildlife tourism and complementary enterprises for re-investment in conservation and community development.
The Uniab River is an ephemeral river on Namibia's Skeleton Coast, located between Torra Bay and Terrace Bay. Its origin is in the Grootberg Mountains near Palmwag. Inflows of the Uniab are Kaikams, Kawakab, Aub, Urenindes and Obob. The river once created a large river delta with five main watercourses. Today it continues to flow only in one of the watercourses, but subterranean water surfaces as springs in the other channels. Uniab's catchment area is estimated to be between 3961 and 4,500 km2 (1,700 sq mi).
Mudumu is a National Park in Caprivi Region of north-eastern Namibia. Established in 1990, the park covers an area of 737 square kilometres (285 sq mi). The Kwando River forms the western border with Botswana. Various communal area conservancies and community forests surround Mudumu National Park.
The Hoanib is one of the 12 ephemeral seasonal rivers in the west of Namibia, where it used to be the border between northern Damaraland and Kaokoland. Its length is 27 kilometres (17 mi). With the low population density in the area, the oasis character of the river valley and the relatively high wildlife population of the Hoanib, like in the case of the Hoarusib, its valley is one of the last true wilderness areas in Namibia. One of the last settlements of desert elephants, it is characterised by strong wind and water eroded, weathered stone deposits. Inflows of Hoanib are Aap River, Otjitaimo River, Ombonde, Ganamub, Mudorib and Tsuxub.
The protected areas of Namibia include its national parks and reserves. With the 2010 declaration of Dorob National Park, Namibia became the first and only country to have its entire coastline protected through a national parks network. Protected areas are subdivided into game reserves and/or nature reserves, such as special protected area, wilderness areas, natural areas, and development areas. There are also recreation reserves. Facilities in the national parks are operated by Namibia Wildlife Resorts. Over 19% of Namibia is protected, an area of some 130,000 square kilometres. However, the Ministry of Environment & Tourism auctions limited hunting rights within its protected areas. The Namibia Nature Foundation, an NGO, was established in 1987 to raise and administer funds for the conservation of wildlife and protected area management. Communal Wildlife Conservancies in Namibia help promote sustainable natural resource management by giving local communities rights to wildlife management and tourism.
The southern white rhinoceros or southern white rhino is one of the two subspecies of the white rhinoceros. It is the most common and widespread subspecies of rhinoceros.
Khama Rhino Sanctuary is a community-based wildlife project in Botswana, located about 25 kilometres (16 mi) outside of Serowe. It covers approximately 8,585 hectares of Kalahari sandveld and is home to white and black rhinos as well as over 30 other mammal species and more than 230 species of birds. The sanctuary was established in 1992 to help save the vanishing rhinoceros and restore historic wildlife populations, as well as to develop the surrounding community. In addition to breeding rhinos, the sanctuary also has an environmental education centre, campsites, property chalets, and a restaurant onsite. Funds are mainly generated from tourism and from selling animals to other farms when capacity is exceeded on the property.
Rhinoceros poaching in southern Africa is the illegal act of slaughtering rhinoceros in the southern African countries of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa, where most of Africa's rhinos live. The most common reason for rhino poaching is to meet the high demand for their horns in Asian countries, where the horn is predominantly used in Traditional Chinese Medicine but is increasingly being used as a symbol of wealth and prosperity. In previous generations, the most common rhino poaching activity was hunting for recreational purposes. Because of excessive poaching, rhino populations have decline rapidly since the 1970s, leaving some species critically endangered and facing extinction.
Baxu and the Giants is a 2019 Namibian 29-minute bilingual short fiction film directed by Florian Schott.
