Buffalo in Namibia


Picture of Buffalo taken on the Waterberg Plateau National Park

Under the IUCN Red Data Book system, the Southern Savanna subspecies of buffalo Syncerus caffer caffer is classified as "Lower Risk (conservation dependent)" by the Antelope Specialist Group (ASG 1998) and it is evident from the data on the Taxon Data Sheet that the subspecies cannot be regarded as threatened in any global or regional context.

Even at the national level, the Namibian buffalo population cannot be considered "vulnerable" under the criteria; although its 'extent of occurrence' in the Caprivi is less than 20,000 km2, within that range its 'area of occupancy' is greater than 2,000 km2. Because it is linked to the large Botswana buffalo population, it would not qualify for any category of threat based on population numbers.

However, the numbers of buffalo in Caprivi are are well below carrying capacity and perhaps the greatest danger to the Namibian buffalo population is the potential fragmentation which could arise if links were severed with the Botswana population due to injudicious application of veterinary control fencing or the spread of settlement and subsistence agriculture ...