It’s a distressing time for conservationists: the sun appears to be about to set on Namibia’s famed wild horses.
The population of the desert-dwelling animals has been dwindling at an alarming rate in recent times. But, unlike elephants and rhinos, which are the target of marauding poachers, the threat to the continued existence of the wild horses is posed by other denizens of the Namib-Naukfluft National Park, in the south of the country. These are spotted hyenas, which drink from the same watering point as the wild horses.
It is no exaggeration to say that the situation has reached crisis proportions. Conservation authorities started raising the alarm in 2013, when the hyenas moved into the area, where the horses had roamed freely for more than 100 years. Their pleas fell on deaf ears. The upshot: that year alone, 100 horses were killed, half of them foals. Since then, the horses’ population has plummeted from 286 to 77.
Now, six years after the Namibia Wild Horse Foundation (NWHF) first sought government intervention, the country’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism says it has cobbled together a plan to prevent further predation of the wild horses. In February, the Ministry announced that it had put down three hyenas under the new plan, dubbed the Wild Horse Action Plan (WHAP). Three hyenas remained, a spokesperson said, adding that these would be captured and moved to a different part of the park.
According to the NWHF, in the past year alone, 20 foals have been lost and not one newly born foal has survived in the past five years.
“There might be one or two pregnant mares still, but that is about it,” the NWHF’s Christine Wulff-Swiegers said in February, adding that the odds were against two newly born foals, one of which had been attacked and was struggling with its injuries.
What is more, the youngest mare is already eight years old, and, in eight years, will be past her breeding age. Thus, if no foal can be saved in time to ensure a breading cycle for the next generation, Namibia’s wild horses will soon become a fading mirage.
Over the years, the horses have endeared themselves to wildlife lovers across the globe, many of whom have donated millions of dollars for the purchase of feed during droughts.
The horses – which embody the wild and free spirit of Namibia – are among the top ten tourist attractions in the country and have been the subject of many documentary films.
Despite all this, the Namibian government has displayed shocking intransigence in its handling of the unfolding crisis. The NWHF has for years asked to be granted custodianship of the wild horses, with a view to moving them to a safe location, but it was given short shrift each time it made this request. Pleas for the Ministry, as the custodian of the hyenas, to manage them properly, have also failed to elicit a positive response.
The Ministry’s fatal inaction is informed by its policy of noninterference regarding the wildlife in the country’s national parks. The new WHAP marks a departure from this policy. One hopes that it is not too little, too late. Worryingly, I have read in the Namibian press of some big-name environmentalists arguing that killing hyenas – themselves a vulnerable species – in order to save wild horses is not a wise proposition. Said one environmentalist: “Spotted hyenas are classified as vulnerable and are therefore a conservation priority in Namibia.
“To have a natural species killed in favour of a feral species in a national park is a very, very sad day for carnivore conservation.”
The ‘noninterference’ lobby also argues that killing or translocating the hyenas would only temporarily reduce predation of the wild horses as new hyenas would fill the gap left by the removed animals sooner or later.
While the ‘noninterference’ argument holds water, I insist that the Namibian authorities must urgently take measures to save the wild horses from extinction. Allowing the remaining animals to die on their watch would do untold harm to Brand Namibia.