African Conservation News
Field stories, research, reports, development, conservation
Ecology of fear in a South African savanna
South African ungulates, or hooved mammals, react differently to different species of predators. Experiments by a research team have demonstrated that the behavioural responses of ungulates to large predators can shape ecosystem structure and function. Most such...
NO to oil drilling in Virunga and Upemba, YES to green investment in DRC
In the past weeks, we have seen many headlines about the Democratic Republic of Congo government’s decision to auction 27 oil and 3 gas blocks in some of the most biodiverse areas of this vast country. National and international civil society organisations are warning...
Climate change could wipe out southern yellow-billed hornbills in the Kalahari Desert by 2027
A University of Cape Town (UCT) study set out to investigate the effect of climate change on the breeding success of southern yellow-billed hornbills in the Kalahari Desert found that they could be wiped out by 2027. The study found that the breeding success of the...
Chimpanzees combine pant-hoots and calls to form vocal sequences
A major challenge in evolutionary science has been the reconstruction of the evolution of language in the world. Given that language does not fossilise, a key line of research has been focusing on comparing the communication systems of animals with that of humans....
Akashinga, the Brave Ones, an all female anti-poaching ranger unit in Zimbabwe
Akashinga or The Brave Ones, is a conservation anti-poaching unit founded on the principles of women’s empowerment as the main driver for social, economic and environmental change. Despite their worldly anti-poaching popularity, what makes Akashinga tilt the scale of...
Elephant ivory: DNA analysis offers clearest insight yet into illegal trafficking networks
Poaching rare wildlife for teeth, tusks, fur, horns and other body parts is a crime which threatens many species with extinction, but the evidence which could incriminate traffickers is often difficult to access, hard to interpret, or piecemeal. To discover more about...
Zebra NFTs raise funds for wildlife conservation in Africa
Stoner Zebra is an NFT collection designed and built to directly help save endangered species through awareness and fundraising. There will be a limited one-time mint of 9999 Stoner Zebras, algorithmically generated to include dozens of unique traits, some of which...
Private Pandas NFT and African Conservation Foundation to Help Endangered Animals
Conservation involves awareness, solutions and resources. The decentralised teams of Private Panda and the African Conservation Foundation are developing a new approach to community-led conservation, connecting the metaverse with environmental impact through...
Community Camera Trapping programme demonstrates potential for wildlife conservation in areas of armed conflict
In one of the first studies of its kind, our innovative Community Camera Trapping Programme demonstrates how local communities monitor their own wildlife populations through camera traps. Our team is using camera trap distance sampling to develop conservation...
The African Conservation Foundation becomes Actor for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration
The African Conservation Foundation (ACF) has officially become an Actor for the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. The partnership recognises ACF’s critical role to build capacity for conservation and ecosystem restoration in Africa – engaging local NGOs and...