Namibia's Wildlife

Namibia is very rural and has a lot of privately owned land  and a lot of wild animals. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the wild animals fit with a farming economy. 

                                                                      Namibian Wildlife
                                                Photo Credit: Rachael Costello

Namibia has government operated National Parks which protect wild animals and are for tourists. They also have National animal reserves which also protect the animals but are not easily accessible  to tourists. Then there are private game farms, where they raise wild animals. Whatever wild animals are on your land are your property, even animals that are endangered like cheetah, wild dog, and rhinos. These fall into several categories: game hunting camps, game farms that raise wild animals to sell to other reserves or for meat, and wildlife viewing farms. Then there are the NGOs. (Nongovernment agencies) like Africat who own land and protect wildlife while doing research. 

The rest of Namibia is cattle or goat farming/ ranching. But often times these farmers will protect wild game on their farms or take in wild game that are problems to other farmers. They call this mixed farming. In such a dry environment overgrazing can be a real problem.  

Otjitotongwe  is a mixed farm. They raise cattle and goats, but also protect wild cheetah. Cheetah come into conflict with farmers when they poach livestock that is easy prey. Problem cheetahs might end up at AFRICAT or at Otjitotongwe the  Idea is to save them from being killed by farmers and if possible reintroduce them into the wild.  Otjitotongwe Has 4 cheetahs that were  brought on as babies and hand raised. These are semi tame and live in the yard of the family. 

                               hand rasied cheetah at Ojitotongwe

                          Photo Credit: Rachael Costello

Tourists are able to have an up close experience. The rules are no sunglasses their reflections freak them out. Do not step on their tales, be calm around them and only pet them on the head and shoulders. It was amazing. Their fur is not soft like a house cats, it's course, but they purr and are very playful like house cats. They actually play with the family dogs. Besides the semi tame cheetahs they have three huge enclosures for problem wild cheetahs and they are wild. After our  up close encounter we went to feed the wild cheetahs, we stood in the. Back of the truck while the owner drove and then got out and threw a hunk of meat to each cheetah. Most if the cheetahs were in the main enclosure , but one especially aggressive cheetah had his own enclosure b/c he kept picking fights with the others . And mothers And cubs get their own enclosure b/c the other cheetahs will kill cubs. The mother and cubs were housed next to the camping area. We only saw them when we first arrived. After they ate we didn't see them again. What I found interesting was that in the big enclosure they had territories just like in the wild. They recently lost one of their female cheetahs to old age. She was taken in blind in one eye they believe from a spitting cobra. They also lost three cheetahs to black mamba snake  bites. They had to go in hunt down and kill the snake before it killed any more cheetahs. This farm also had an ostrich, a giraffe who had wondered to another farm and many dik dik. It was an experience if a lifetime.

                                  dik dik
                  Photo Credit: Rachael Costello