In the realm of wildlife conservation and management, accurately estimating species population sizes and structures is essential. This is particularly crucial for keystone species, such as large carnivores, as they play a pivotal role in ecosystems due to their position at the top of the food chain. Comprehending carnivore ecology, behaviour, and population dynamics within protected areas is especially pertinent to conservation efforts. It also enhances our ability to mitigate conflicts with human populations residing in the surrounding areas of these areas.
Reliable population estimates for lions, spotted hyaenas, cheetahs and leopards in Namibia’s flagship Etosha National Park, are still lacking. This recognition called the Greater Etosha Carnivore Programme into life; a collaboration between Ongava Research Centre, the Etosha Ecological Institute and others, to try and address this knowledge gap by conducting large-scale surveys in the Park in 2024.
Carnivores are notoriously difficult to count due to their wide-ranging behaviours, nocturnal habits, elusive nature and low densities. Fortunately, methods to monitor population sizes have been relatively well developed. Cheetahs and leopards have unique coat patterns, which allows for individual identification from direct observation or from photographs. The aim of our Master's student, Mburae Keja (registered at Namibia University of Science and Technology), will be to use individual identification to produce the first population size estimates for these two spotted cat species in Etosha.
Therefore, we invite all visitors to Etosha National Park to share their photographs of cheetahs and leopards to help us achieve our goal.
You can submit your observations via the button below. You will be asked to provide some details about your observation, such as date, location, and the number of animals in the group and to share your email address with us so we can contact you if we need to (no spamming, promise). You can also simply send an email with all the information about your sighting(s) to etosha.census@orc.eco (one email per observation please). Your images will then be processed using a specialised Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform, the African Carnivore Wildbook . Image submission will be open from 1 June 2024 until 31st December 2025.
For identification purposes, high-quality images capturing clear views of the animal's flanks are preferred. If you can provide images of both sides, this is the holy grail for us! Group pictures are also important to help us identify social relationships and cub survival rates. Profile (side) portraits are also valuable.
However, frontal portraits are not ideal as the front of the face doesn’t show many unique features. Images of animals where most of their body is obstructed, such as when lying down, behind vegetation or walking away, are not particularly valuable either. The AI pattern recognition algorithm requires a clear contract to be able to do its job. Hence, pixelated pictures resulting from low resolution images or from the animal being too small in the frame will not be very helpful either.
The winner will get to enjoy Anderssons full luxury, which includes unparalleled game-viewing opportunities, whether from an underground hide, the pool or comfort of your accommodation. Anderssons boasts facilities that are primed for comfort and epitomises Namibian hospitality. Since the Ongava Research Centre is also located at Andersson's, you are also invited to meet the researchers conducting this survey first-hand, the rest of our team and learn more about the Ongava Research Centre’s mission and projects.
Images copyright and intellectual property disclaimer By submitting your images to this survey, you allow Ongava Research to use them solely to identify individual cheetahs and leopards and give them the intellectual property of the data extracted from these images. Submitted images will not be used for any commercial purpose. The copyright and property of images remain entirely with the person submitting them. If the Ongava Research Centre (or collaborators) wishes to use the images to display to the public for research/illustration purposes, the person who submitted the image will be contacted, permission will be asked, and owner copyright will be clearly displayed on the image.
