Botswana: Officer Gives Boteti Wildlife Thumps Up

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By Ponatshego Moshawa, Daily News

Date Published

Letlhakane — A wildlife officer in Letlhakane says wild animals in Boteti sub-District are in a fair and good condition despite low rainfall in the area.

 
Presenting a report to the district disaster management committee recently, Mr Ramogwe Rampete noted that the Boteti River has been flowing hence availability of water to most water dependent species.
 
He highlighted that there were 154 reports of human wildlife conflict which were attended to in the second quarter of 2015.
 
“In one incident a pride of lions killed 79 goats in one kraal,” he said.
 
Mr Rampete said lions, leopards, wild dogs, hyenas and elephants were problem animals in the area. He said there were 666 reports that were currently pending payments, noting that they all amount to over P1 million.
 
The officer said the money was meant to compensate aggrieved parties and for their damaged properties as well as preyed livestock.
 
Mr Rampete decried poor animal husbandry such as not keeping animals in kralls at night as one of the challenges. He said the failure to protect incident scenes by herd boys and property owners was one factor that also creates challenges when they embark on their investigations.
 
“Our community support and outreach programme in the ministry ensures that there is information dissemination in regard to human wildlife conflict so as to curb the instances,” he said.
 
He noted that another intervention measure was to deploy officers twice a month to hotspot areas.