New Leopard Survey Builds on Founder's Work in Namibia

Female leopard in Etosha National Park, Namibia

In 2011, CLAWS founder, Dr. Andrew Stein, led a team of local researchers to generate the first national estimates for leopards in Namibia. The survey used both camera traps and road transects looking for tracks to estimate their abundance in three designated areas of commercial farms. Each of these areas was chosen to designate high, medium and low density based on questionnaires of over 100 commercial farmers in the interior of the country. At the conclusion of the study, Dr. Stein and Amon Andreas estimated that there were approximately 14,154 leopards in the country, however, this estimate needed refinement. “Though we tried our best to acquire information from all regions of the country, there are still large areas that have not yet been surveyed and therefore we feel that this study is just a first step toward improved management” says Stein. IN addition, the report outlined an adaptive management strategy for assessing the impacts of of trophy hunting on the leopard population- which was part of the impetus for conducting the survey in the first place.

This new survey, conducted by Dr, Louisa Richmond- Coggan has resurveyed the original areas and incorporated 13 additional leopard studies since the original survey in 2011. This additional information and refinement of the original distribution map has generated an estimate of 11,733. Dr. Richmond-Coggan’s report is quite comprehensive and details mainy of the issues currently facing the leopard population. Click HERE to read the report!