Country Area - 825,418 km²
Range Area - 164,069 km² (20%)
Protected Range - 18%
Information Quality Index (IQI) - 0.43
CITES Appendix - II
Listing Year - 1997
Namibia’s elephants occur across the northern region of the country, mostly in national parks and community areas. Their range encompasses a wide variety of habitats, from the extremely arid north-west Kunene Region to the well-watered Zambezi (formerly Caprivi) Region, where the elephants form part of the KAZA transfrontier population. Although poaching has increased in the Zambezi Region in the past ten years, it is not seen as a significant threat in Etosha National Park or for populations in Khaudum National Park and Kunene Region.
Elephant hunting takes place in Namibia, and the revenue generated provides significant income to community conservancies (Naidoo et al., 2006). From 2007 to 2015, Namibia declared an annual export quota of elephant hunting trophies of 180, defined as tusks from 90 animals (CITES, n.d.-a).
Namibia’s elephant management plan was published in 2007 (Ministry of Environment and Tourism, 2007).
In 2008, Namibia undertook an approved one-off sale of 7,503 kg of ivory to Japan and China, at a price of USD $1,147,369 (Wijnstekers, 2011).
The estimated number of elephants in areas surveyed in the last ten years in Namibia is 22,754 ± 4,305 at the time of the last survey for each area. There may be an additional 90 elephants in areas not systematically surveyed. These guesses likely represent a minimum number, and actual numbers could be higher than those reported. Together, this estimate and guess apply to 84,283 km², which is 52% of the estimated known and possible elephant range. There remains an additional 48% of the estimated range for which no elephant population estimates are available.
The elephant population of Namibia has continued to increase although, with wide confidence limits in aerial surveys and elephants moving across international borders, it is not possible to be precise about how great the increase in the national population has been.
There are four main populations, the transfrontier population (with Zambia, Angola, Botswana and Zimbabwe) in the Zambezi Region, in Khaudum National Park in the north-east, the Etosha National Park population, and the Kunene population in the north-west which includes the “desert” elephants.
There has been an increasing trend in elephant numbers in the Zambezi Region since surveys started in the 1980s. This is likely to have been a result of both natural growth and movement from neighbouring countries. Aerial sample counts were carried out in 2007, 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2015, giving estimates of 8,380, 10,847 ± 3,580, 9,165 ± 2,016, 14,097 ± 2,678 and 13,116 ± 3,413 (Chase, 2007; Craig & Gibson, 2013b, 2014; Craig, 2011b; Gibson & Craig, 2015a). The previous estimate in the AESR 2007 was 8,725 ± 2,206 (Kolberg, 2004). There was also a total count carried out in 2007 (Chase, 2007) and a sample count in 2008 (Kolberg, 2008). However the latter was carried out with an inexperienced crew and the results were thought to be a considerable underestimate (Kolberg, 2008).
The elephant population of Khaudum NP and the neighbouring community conservancies of Nyae Nyae and N≠a Jaqna have been established since the 1980s, with the provision of artificial water and movements across the border from Botswana. Three aerial sample counts were carried out in 2011, 2013 and 2015 giving estimates of 4,731 ± 1,940, 3,638 ± 1,164, and 6,413 ± 2,566 (Craig & Gibson, 2013a; Gibson & Craig, 2015b; MET, 2012). The 2015 figure replaces an estimate of 3,758 ± 2,289 for Khaudum, 61 ± 115 for N#a Jaqna (Kolberg, 2004) and 967 ± 481 for Nyae Nyae (Stander, 2004). None of these are significant differences.
There is a limited movement of elephants between Angola and the Kavango region to the north-west of Khaudum (Terblanche, 2016).
There is a small elephant population in the Mangetti area between Khaudum and Etosha. The AESR 2007 indicated that they occupy the Mangetti Game Reserve, whereas their range is actually concentrated around the Mangetti Cattle Ranch to the west, and also probably extends into the Ukwuangali communal area to the north. Ninety individuals were observed in Mangetti in 2015 (Lindeque, pers. comm., 2016). This informed guess replaces one of 20 from 2005 (Ministry of Environment and Tourism, 2005).
Etosha National Park in northern Namibia has an increasingly isolated elephant population, since the perimeter fencing has been upgraded in recent years. There has been a gradual increase in elephant numbers, moderated by deaths from anthrax and poaching. Aerial sample counts were carried out in 2011 and 2012, giving estimates of 3,378 ± 1,756 and 2,810 (confidence limits not available) (Kolberg, 2012; MET, 2012). The most recent aerial sample count from 2015 gave an estimate of 2,911 ± 637 (Kilian, 2015) and replaces an estimate of 2,057 ± 598 from 2004 (Kilian & Kolberg, 2004).
It is technically very difficult to count the widely scattered elephant population in the Kunene Region, which includes the ‘desert elephants’ in the dry, western extremity of the range and there has been controversy about the numbers in this area. A combined sample block count and aerial total count was carried out by helicopter in 2011, giving an estimate of 314 ± 154 (MET, 2012). This replaces an estimate of 210 ± 157 from a 2005 survey (Ministry of Environment and Tourism, 2005). It should be noted that the count did not include the extreme northern part of the range around Opuwo, nor the farms to the south of Etosha. There has been some range expansion to both the south and north, with elephants now being resident in the Ugab river basin and about ten elephants resident in the northern Etanga area (Owen-Smith, pers. comm., 2014). The area of known range has been changed, and the Etanga group is shown as a point record on the map. The Kunene population appears to have been increasing in numbers and range, despite evidence that the ‘desert elephant’ sub-population in the Houanib and Houarusib dry riverbeds reduced from 42 to 31 between 2002 and 2015 (Ramey & Brown, 2015).
There are occasional sightings of elephants in livestock ranching areas to the south of their normal range in the area north and east of Windhoek. These are shown as point records on the range map (Hartman, 2014; The Namibian, 2014).