The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) will conduct the first-ever coordinated elephant aerial survey from August to October.
Malebogo Somolokae, chief wildlife officer of Botswana’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) told Xinhua on Sunday that the statistics will help the southern African country gain an improved understanding of elephant numbers and distributions, and use the data alongside the “Problem Animal” datasets to identify conflict areas, with appropriate human-elephant conflict interventions to be put in place in the most affected regions.
She said that the exercise will provide Botswana with the most recent estimates of the elephant population, which will help them decide whether to increase or decrease elephant hunting in different controlled hunting areas across the country.