A thread about #rhinos in #Namibia

1/ In the course of reading #colonial accounts of west Namibian landscapes for @Future_Pasts, I started mapping recorded encounters with rhinos: around 100 records so far, dating back to the late 1700s.

2/ The online map from this work indicates where #rhino were documented in the last 200 yrs.
Each placemark includes information for encounters as increasing numbers of mostly European men traversed the area.

See: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/3/edit?mid=1vDPF3dJwxqGPqPRJjBs6SDGYQHeU8-ve&usp=sharing

3/ #rhino in #Namibia were decimated by colonial #hunting with firearms in esp. 1800s: for 'sport', meat and hides.

British Capn JE Alexander's text shows an 1837 rhino hunt where no rhino are now (afaik). Firearms, spears & arrows were all used for this hunt.

4/ This map of #colonial encounters with #rhinos is introduced in a Foreword with Jeff Muntifering (Science Adviser to Namibia's Save the Rhino Trust), to a retrospectively published MSc dissertation by SRT's CEO Simson !Uri≠khob

@SRTNamibia @savetherhino

5/ Simson's MSc - submitted 2004 @DICE_Kent - analysed local attitudes towards #blackrhino in N-W Kunene Region, #Namibia, at a significant moment prior to translocations of these animals back to areas of its former range.

See: https://www.futurepasts.net/fpwp8-urikhob-sullivan-muntife-2020

6/ In the communal-area #conservancies of west #Namibia, rhino are important for #conservation & #tourism.

#SRT, local #rhinorangers and the Namibian govt's Black Rhino Custodianship Program work hard to sustain #blackrhino amidst sig. pressure for #rhinohorn.

7/ Given the massive reduction of historical #rhino range as colonial #hunting expanded + the concentration of marginalised Namibians alongside high-value rhino in a challenging landscape, it's impressive to be around black rhino #conservation in N-W Namibia.

8/ I'm sharing this thread with a nod to an old friend, the late #BlytheLoutit, and a wave to friends & colleagues in #SRT today
/end

[of interest? @ConservationNa1 @PCLG_IIED @AdamHartScience @BathSpaGeog @convivconserv]

blog here: https://www.futurepasts.net/post/perceptions-and-histories-of-black-rhino-in-west-namibia