Tag archives for Namibia
Posted by In September 2010, we departed from Seronga Village in two “mokoros” or dug-out canoes on an adventure of a lifetime…. No one we knew had ever done this before and the raw energy of that “first-time” was inspirational. We filmed what we could and took some amazing photographs, but remained focussed on the research and…
Posted by Part 3 of my video Namibia: The Big Empty has some nice aerials of something called, Fairy Circles,” a rather unique feature of the Namibia landscape that looks as if it were painted by space aliens using the desert as their canvas. We also fly along the skeleton coast and get a good sense of…
Part 2 of my Namibia video features Deadviei and Sossusviei, perhaps the most photographed spot in Namibia. Deadviei is a beautiful but eerie sculpture garden created by mother nature’s extreme mood swings. Here she’s turned a former lake into a dead pan of white clay surrounded by giant red sand dunes. And scattered around the…
Namibia: The Big Empty part 1. This is a look at that Southern African country which is defined in large measure by its dramatic desert landscape. To set the big picture we start with aerials that give a sense of the vastness and variety of the Namib desert, and then move in for close ups…
Posted by The Big Cats Initiative Grants Program seeks to identify and support projects that engage in immediate actions leading to reductions in big cat mortality. BCI Grantees often provide updates from the field, and we love sharing them with you. BCI Grantee Florian Weise provides this dispatch from the field. By Florian J. Weise,…
Most people are surprised and alarmed when they are told that the Okavango Delta is not a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is about to change with nomination scheduled for February next year and declaration in 2014. The word, “Okavango”, like “Amazon” and “Congo”, evokes the powerful sense of place in the “wilderness” and imagines an untamed place characterized…
Until next year then… During those last few days on the mokoros you can feel every kilometer travelled away from the wilderness in the center of the Okavango Delta that you have just visited. As this “true wilderness” got further and further away we began to fear that we would forget what it felt like…
Posted by 
AfriCat (& Okonjima Lodge) is a family affair. The Hanssens, a Namibian farming family, settled on the property of Okonjima in the 1970s. They experienced first-hand the hardships and the rewards of cattle farming in Namibia. Unique insiders to the region, in contrast to most NGOs who arrive new on the scene, the Hanssens are…
Posted by Zebra stripes are among the most striking mammalian coat patterns. How these dramatic patterns are produced remains mysterious, as does their adaptive value. National Geographic grantee Brenda Larison is in the field in Africa to gain new insights about the evolution of zebra stripes.
The Cheetah Conservation Fund, headquartered in Otjiworongo, Namibia, is a recognized leader in the field of big cat conservation. CCF is known for many projects, especially their captive cheetah population which number over fifty, some that can be returned to the wild, some that, for a variety of circumstances, cannot. This creates the specialized need…
I’m not entirely convinced this isn’t a death march. It’s high noon in the oldest desert on earth. Glancing down at the red sand to see a beetle burrowing back under, saving itself from the scorching heat, I’m transported to a long lost nature program viewed from the comfort of a ‘70s wood-paneled family room…
In Namibia, I visited a foundation with their ear to the ground on the latest technological developments in conservation. From cyber-stalking their GPS collared cheetah via Google Earth and Sirtrack to scanning footprints (spoor) into an analytical database, N/a’an ku sê Foundation is combining new tech with on-the-ground analogue (so to speak) work in the…
The Big Cats Initiative Grants Program seeks to identify and support projects that engage in immediate actions leading to reductions in big cat mortality. BCI Grantee Florian Weise provides this dispatch from the field: Leopard given GPS collar after capture on Namibian cattle ranch A large portion of central Namibia’s landscape is used for cattle…
Five African Nations Sign Up for Conservation Zone the Size of California
Posted by Leon Marshall of Environmental Journalist, News Watch South African Contributor on August 29, 2011 Five southern African countries have signed into place the region’s biggest and most ambitious transfrontier conservation project yet. It covers a sparsely populated region of 444,000 square kilometers (171,429 square miles; slightly larger than California) that comprises some of the most spectacular scenery on the continent.
Behind the Lens: Photograph or Painting?
Posted by Andrew Howley of NG Staff on May 20, 2011 
While on assignment in Namibia for National Geographic magazine, Frans Lanting captured this surreal landscape image in a location called Dead Vlei. Due to the nature of the lighting in the frame, the photograph appears almost like a painting. We asked Lanting to take a few moments to answer readers’ questions.
Posted by 
A serious poaching upsurge in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, prompted Africa’s top rhino experts to meet to assess the status of the horned pachyderms across the continent and to identify strategies to combat the crisis.
National Geographic scientist and Nat Geo News Watch blogger Stuart Pimm is one of two conservationists who have been awarded the 2010 Tyler Environmental Prize. The award, consisting of a U.S.$200,000 cash prize and gold medals, goes to Laurie Marker, the co-founder and executive director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Otjiwarongo, Namibia, and Stuart…
The largest-ever study on African genetics has determined that the ancestral origin of humans was probably located in southern Africa, near the South Africa-Namibia border, scientists said today. African, American, and European researchers working in collaboration over ten years released their study of African genetic data, providing a library of new information on the continent which…
An elephant strikes a seismic sensing stance. Placing one foot on tiptoe enhances the sensitivity to seismic signals when using the bone conduction method of sensing, according to Researcher Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell. Photo courtesy Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell Elephants can communicate with one another miles apart by making subsonic calls that vibrate the ground, researchers established a few…
