• Home
  • About the Trust
    • Trustees
    • Our Partners
    • Annual Reports
  • Our Projects
    • Current Projects
    • Completed Projects
  • COVID Relief
  • News
  • Contact Us

Brown Hyaena Research Programme

July 16, 2014
by Wilderness Safaris
Comments are off

Smiley face

  • Researcher: Dr. Ingrid Wiesel

    Region: Namib Desert, Namibia

  • Details

    The Namib Desert seems too harsh to bear life, but in fact a large variety of fauna and flora inhabit this challenging environment, particularly the coastal area where large mammals are supported by the rich marine life of the Atlantic Ocean. Here, the brown hyena feeds almost exclusively on Cape fur seal pups of the mainland seal colonies. Since there are no other large predators, this small, shy animal is in fact the top predator of the area. As such, it also comes into conflict with humans.

    The Namib Desert Brown Hyaena Project, founded in 1997, therefore sets out to study this unique predator-prey ecosystem between hyena and seal, in the coastal areas of Restricted Diamond Area No.1 (Sperrgebiet).

    To monitor such elusive and ecologically unique animals needs sophisticated equipment, and the Trust’s contribution has gone towards the GPS telemetry projects. Over the past year, several hyaena have been collared, tracked, and monitored, adding to the knowledge of population densities, distribution and habits. Camera traps were set up, which after some modification and moving of the site finally caught sight of three hyena. The Project reported the road death of a brown hyaena known as “Dollar” and as a result, Namdeb Diamond Corporation offered to sponsor Wildlife Warning signs along the road between Luderitz to Aus; hopefully this will prevent some of the wildlife-related accidents on the road.

    By researching the brown hyena in its natural habitat, solutions can hopefully be created for the long-term conservation and survival of free-ranging hyaena and its fragile habitat.

[layerslider id="1"]

Completed Projects

Owls as Pest Control Study
May 09, 2018
Rwanda Shoebill Aerial Survey
Apr 18, 2018
Makgadikgadi Male Elephant Study
Mar 01, 2018
Botswana Springbok Conservation Programme
Mar 01, 2018
Volcanoes National Park Food Security Study
Jan 30, 2018
Disclaimer & Private Policy
© 2019 The Wilderness Trust

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.

Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!