22 May 2024

 Over 100 hippos in Nxaraga and other wildlife species have been saved from starvation and death by Save Wildlife Conservation in collaboration with the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP).

The wildlife conservation organisation has spent close to P100 000 so far to provide feed to the hippos and to dig a trench to pump water from a borehole to drying pools used by the animals to cool themselves.

Save Wildlife Conservation project coordinator, Mr Tendae Kholi said giving food and water to the hippos was their attempt to foster peaceful co-existence between humans and wildlife by empowering communities and protecting wildlife.

He said hippos had thick but sensitive skin that burned easily under the scorching sun and that they were stuck in drying-up lagoons. He also said they were on the red list of threatened and critically endangered species since 2019.

Before the intervention the hippos were struggling to cool themselves while others died due to territorial fights, overpopulated and competition for pasture with livestock and other wildlife species.

Mr Kholi said the area was experiencing the effects of climate change and that could choose not to intervene and let nature take its course, but that they chose to modify natural selection.

He also noted that relocating the hippos was an option, but said the exercise was expensive hence they opted to dig a trench and pump water while awaiting for the arrival of the annual floods.

He said they experienced a similar situation in 2019 when hippos at Nxaraga and Lake Ngami were dying because of hunger and thirst. The Nxaraga lagoons and Lake Ngami depend on water inflows from the Okavango Delta system while the delta depends on flood waters from the Angola highlands which enter Botswana at Mohembo

Mr Kholi highlighted that the drying of water sources for hippos exacerbated incidents of human/wildlife conflict as they were intruding into villagers in search of water and food.

He said their borehole drilling and equipping project did not only benefit the hippos, but also residents, their livestock and other species. He said they have also employed Nxaraga residents to maintain and secure the borehole site which was fenced. ENDS