Southern Africa News

The oldest members of one of Africa’s iconic tree species, the African baobab (Adansonia digitata), appear to be in trouble, according to a study out this week. Across the tree’s…

“Walking Thunder” can feel like a family trip around the continent of Africa — if your parents were award-winning photographers and explorers. The mesmerizing film about the African elephant by…

In mid-2017, Ed Warner visited Zimbabwe, which has the world’s largest black rhino population after South Africa, Namibia and Kenya, to volunteer for the International Rhino Foundation (IRF)’s Zimbabwe Lowveld…

South African Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa announced in a press briefing today that 1,028 rhinos were illegally killed in the country in 2017. That figure represents…

Less than a month after exporting thirty-five wild elephants to China, the new government of Zimbabwe has signaled it is moving in a new direction on conservation issues. On December…

Authorities protecting rhinos in Africa now have a tool to help them catch poachers based on fine-scale differences in the DNA of different individuals. The Rhino DNA Index System, or RhODIS…

A sliver of ocean on the Southern Africa coast is getting a new chance at success thanks to an agreement announced Dec. 6. The National Administration of Conservation Areas of…

Criminal networks of Chinese origin operating in southern Africa have started processing rhino horn into jewelry and other trinkets before smuggling it out of the continent, reports wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic.

Galagos have a reputation among scientists for being one of the more mysterious primates, in large part because they're so tough to study. Endearingly known as bush babies, they stick…

Companies operating in Africa would do well to avoid conflicts over land with local populations, according to new research by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), a Washington, D.C.-based NGO…

In southern Africa, certain hunter-gatherer communities called the San peoples, have traditionally been known to use deadly poison-tipped arrows to hunt big game like gazelles and giraffe. Now, in a…

New research finds that an increasing demand for agricultural land and a growing population could change the structure and composition of the embattled African country's remaining southeastern forests.

Chilojo Cliffs in Gonarezhou National Park, Zimbabwe, one of the four protected areas studied in the new paper. Photo credit: Gonarezhou Conservation Project/Patience Gandiwa. In Zimbabwe, people living near protected…

One of the female lions being translocated to Rwanda. Photo by: Matthew Poole. After 15 years, the roar of lions will once again be heard in Rwanda. Today the NGO,…

Secretary bird (Sagittarius serpentarius) in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania (East Africa). Photo by: Rhett Butler. What started as a program aimed at land redistribution to empower vulnerable, landless people has turned…

A baobob tree in scrub woodland in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe. Photo by Kjdhambuza. Zimbabwe, home to more than 14 million people, is currently facing a severe economic crisis. Under President…

Locals are key to Namibia's rhino success even in the midst of a poaching crisis A desert adapted black rhino in north-west Namibia. Photo by: Dave Hamman Photograph. Africa's rhinos…

Wild cats will remain protected from hunting for now. After 20 months, Zambia has lifted its ban on hunting, allowing trophy hunters to target numerous species in the wildlife-rich country…

Two prominent NGOs—the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and the International Rhino Foundation (IRF)—are petitioning the U.S government to slap Mozambique with trade sanctions due to the country's role in regional…

Meet the world's newest elephant shrew: the Etendeka round-eared sengi. Photo by: Jack Dumbacher/California Academy of Sciences. Forget marsupials, the world's strangest group of mammals are actually those in the…