The Kalahari — a vast semi-arid savanna spanning Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa — is not a true desert but a remarkable ecosystem supporting diverse wildlife adapted to seasonal aridity. Its welfare challenges center on fencing, predator-livestock conflict, and drought intensification.
Some fences have been modified with game gaps, partially restoring movement. However, cattle fences throughout the Kalahari continue to fragment wildlife habitat and create barriers that strand animals during drought years.
Caracals, brown hyenas, black-backed jackals, and cheetahs living near livestock farms face lethal persecution. Trapping, poisoning (often using highly toxic compounds that cause agonizing death), and shooting are common. Poison baiting kills non-target species including vultures, which may eat poisoned carcasses. Cape vulture populations have been severely impacted by intentional and unintentional poisoning.
Community-based livestock guarding programs — using Anatolian shepherd dogs as livestock guardians — have significantly reduced predator killing on participating farms. These programs provide welfare benefits to wild predators while maintaining livestock protection.
Meerkats are highly social mongooses that live in cooperative groups. Their welfare has been studied extensively at the Kalahari Meerkat Project (since 1993). Key welfare challenges include predation (martial eagle, pale chanting goshawk), intragroup aggression when dominant females kill subordinate offspring, and heat stress during extreme summer temperatures. Climate change is increasing heat mortality in young pups.
Springbok were once present in hundreds of millions during historical migrations (trekbokken). Modern populations are fragmented on farms and reserves. Drought years concentrate animals around remaining water points, increasing disease transmission and competition. Overgrazing in communal areas leaves weakened animals facing starvation during dry seasons. Game ranch hunting operations vary in welfare standards — rapid death from well-placed shots contrasts with wounded animals that escape.
The Kalahari is one of the fastest-warming regions in southern Africa. Increased drought frequency and intensity reduces grass cover, degrades water sources, and pushes wildlife into physiological stress. Brown hyenas, wide-ranging nocturnal predators, face reduced prey availability during drought years. Ostrich and kori bustard breeding success is reduced in extreme heat years.