Humans, Livestock, and Lions in Northwest Namibia John Moore Heydinger M. Phil Conservation Biology BA (Hons) Environmental and Geographic Studies BA History Department of Geography and Planning Macquarie University, Australia Supervisor: Emily O’Gorman, PhD Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine University of Minnesota Supervisor: Susan Jones, PhD/DVM January 2020 This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Copyright 2020 John Moore Heydinger M a p o f n o r t h w e s t N a m i b i a s h o w i n g i F Figure 1: Rivers, relevant historical and contemporary boundaries, towns, settlements, and places of interest mentioned in the text. Created by author. i TABLE OF CONTENTS Map of Northwest Namibia………………………………………………….…………... i Contents………………………………………………………………………………….. ii Abstract & Statement of Originality…….……………………………………………… iii List of Images………………………………………….…………..……….………….... iv Timeline………………………………………………….………………….……………..v Abbreviations, Permits, & Support……………………………………..……………… vi Dedication & Acknowledgements…………………..…………………..…………….. vii Introduction….……………………………………………….…………………………....1 Chapter 1: Eserewondo Ozongombe: livestock as sites of power and resistance in Kaokoveld, Namibia, 1800s-1940s…………………..…………..31 Chapter 2: Vermin: predator eradication as an expression of white supremacy in colonial Namibia, 1921-1952………………………..….……...59 Chapter 3: The Social Causes and Environmental Effects of Apartheid in Etosha-Kaokoveld, 1948-1970s………………………….……………. 82 Chapter 4: Lions in Northwest Namibia: Etosha and the northern Namib, 1800s-1990s………………………………………..………………121 Chapter 5: The Desert-adapted Lions of the Northern Namib, 1980s-2010……………………………………………………..……………..151 Chapter 6: Desert-adapted lions and CBNRM, 2010s-?......................................183 Conclusions: Looking Forward…Looking Back…………………………...………..215 Bibliography……………………………………………….………………………...... 223 Appendix 1: Publication: Desert-adapted lions on communal land.….…………. 241 Appendix 2: NWLWG 2020-2022 Interim Quota Recommendations ….……….. 250 Appendix 3: Historical Etosha and northern Namib lion population trends.....….257 Appendix 4: Institutional Research Board approval…………………….………… 258 ii ABSTRACT Humans, livestock, and lions have inhabited shared landscapes in northwest Namibia for hundreds of years. Currently, human-lion conflict (HLC) threatens pastoral livelihoods and the viability of the region’s desert-adapted lion population. In this dissertation I examine the history of human-livestock-lion relationships in the region. The goal is to create historically-informed solutions to HLC that are locally-inclusive. Drawing on archival, scientific, and governmental material, as well as social surveys and oral histories that I have performed, this is the first time that the disparate sources on human-livestock-lion relationships in northwest Namibia have been unified. While scholars of African environments have problematized interpretations of Africa’s environmental colonial and postcolonial past, this is the first work to examine human-predator relationships as a fulcrum for understanding colonial and postcolonial politics and the current challenges of conserving African lions. As a document informing ongoing conservation interventions, this is the first attempt to explicitly frame applied lion conservation activities within historical contexts, critically assessing livestock as mediators of human-lion interactions. I begin by showing how the precolonial and early-colonial experience of the region’s ovaHerero people was mediated through the control of livestock. I then examine how colonial era policies remade, and were aided by, the geography of predators. The effects of apartheid on the region’s wildlife showcase some of the important legacies of colonial-era policies. I then reveal the long history of human-lion interactions with particular emphasis on the transformative role of livestock. I then focus on the behavior and ecology of the desert-adapted lions, highlighting important contrasts with other lion populations and emphasizing how recent monitoring induced a paradigm shift. Finally, I center ongoing HLC within communal rangelands as experienced by pastoralists and suggest one way of reframing HLC that is founded in local perspectives. STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY iii LIST OF FIGURES Cover: XPL-69, desert-adapted lioness in the Hoanib riverbed, 2019. Figure 1: Map of Northwest Namibia……………………………………………………………..i Figure 2: View of Wêreldsend……………………………………………………..……….……. 3 Figure 3: Muhona Katiti and Harunga………………...…………………………….…….……4 6 Figure 4: Cocky Hahn and dead lion…………………..……..………………………….……. 59 Figure 5: African wild dog………………………………………………………………..………6 4 Figure 6: Vermin Clubs’ records, 1934………………………………………………………... 71 Figure 7: Desert-adapted lioness, northwest Namibia…………………………………….… 73 Figure 8: Map of native reserve boundaries, 1963……………………………………….…..9 9 Figure 9: Map of boundaries proposed by Odendaal Commission…………………….….. 99 Figure 10: Visualization of changing Etosha boundaries…………..…………..…….….....100 Figure 11: Cover of African Wild Life Supplement, 1971…………………………….……..10 2 Figure 12: Ken Tinley…………………………………………………………………….……..102 Figure 13: Blue wildebeest near Etosha pan………………………………………….……..112 Figure 14: Drawing of lions attacking a giraffe……………………………………………… 121 Figure 15: Last known image of a wild Barbary lion……………………………………...... 127 Figure 16: ‘Lion-Man’ of Twyfelfontein………………………………………………….…….130 Figure 17: ‘Man-Eaters’ of Tsavo……………………………………………………………...137 Figure 18: Shortridge’s map of lion distribution in South West Africa, 1934……….……..139 Figure 19: Unknown woman, two children, and dead lion, Ovamboland, 1925….………139 Figure 20: Viljoen’s map of lion distribution in Kaokoveld, 1980…………………………. 148 Figure 21: Map of lion range expansion in northwest Namibia, 1995-2015……..……….153. Figure 22: Philip Stander, 2019………………………………………………………………..155 Figure 23: Lions on communal land from the air…………………………………….………163 Figure 24: Schematic visualization of Aub lionesses’ grouping patterns……………….…164 Figure 25: Visualization of different lion cooperative stalking patterns………………..…..170 Figure 26: Sub-adult lion rushing giraffe in Hoanib riverbed…………………………..……174 Figure 27: XPL-10………………………………………………………………………..……..176 Figure 28: Puros villagers and XPL-10……………………………………………….………176 Figure 29: Cow and young girl following conflict incident, 2018………………….………. 183 Figure 30: Aftermath of HLC incident at conservancy farm, 2017……………….……….. 197 Figure 31: Two dead lions following HLC incidents, 2019..……………………….………..204 Figure 32: Map of overlapping lion home ranges...….………………………………………207 Figure 33: Map of core home range areas of lions causing HLC at one farm....…………207 Figure 34: OvaHerero communal pastoralist, Anabeb Conservancy, 2018…….……….. 215 Figure 35: Author and the Lion Rangers, 2018…………………………………….………..220 iv TIMELINE ~2,000 years ago, evidence of first pastoralism in the northern Namib. ~1,000 years ago, evidence of first cattle in the northern Namib. ~1500s, ovaHerero enter northwest Namibia from the northeast. ~1830, Jonker Afrikaner and Oorlams establish sovereignty over central and southern Namibia. 1850-3, Swedish explorer CJ Andersson provides first written account of lions in NW Namibia. 1885, German rule begins, present-day Namibia known as German South West Africa. 1896/7, rinderpest epidemic in southern Africa. 1904-07, Herero-German War and the Herero Genocide. 1907, German colonial government proclaims Wildschutzgebiet Nr. 2 (Game Reserve No. 2); at approximately 80,000 km2 it is the largest wildlife reserve in the world. 1912, lions heard roaring at Etosha for the first time in years. 1915, South Africa gains control of territory; renamed South West Africa. 1920, South West Africa classified as a Class “C” Mandate by the League of Nations. 1922, Reserves for Harunga, Muhona Katiti, and Kakurukoje proclaimed in northern Kaokoveld. 1926, Etosha area lion population estimated at 200. 1931, death of Muhona Katiti. 1937, death of Harunga. 1947, Kaokoveld given dual status of Native Reserve and Game Reserve (within Game Reserve #2); Etosha Pan Game Reserve created. 1948, Nationalists triumph in South African elections; beginning of apartheid. 1958, Game Reserve #2 becomes Etosha Game Park; Etosha is split from Kaokoveld and its size is reduced (~55,000 km2). 1963, Odendaal Commission redraws political boundaries of northwest Namibia; Kaokoveld reduced, Damaraland created, Skeleton Coast wildlife reserve created, Etosha reduced to present-day boundaries (22,270 km2). 1967, Etosha game park becomes Etosha National Park. 1971, Skeleton Coast wildlife reserve becomes Skeleton Coast National Park (16,845 km2). 1973, Etosha enclosed by fence. 1978/9, massive drought begins in Kaokoveld. 1981, Etosha lion population estimated at 500. 1982, last confirmed lion-caused human mortality in NW Namibia. 1987, Etosha lion population estimated at 200. 1990, Namibian independence; Kaokoveld, northern Damaraland, and commercial farmland integrated to form the Kunene Region. 1991, lions thought to have disappeared from communal land in NW Namibia. 1997, first new evidence of resident lions persisting on communal land. 1998, first communal conservancies gazetted in Kunene Region. 1999, Kunene Lion Project (later Desert Lion Conservation) formed; lion population on communal land estimated at 20 individuals. 2015, lion population within communal land in NW Namibia estimated at 180. 2017, Namibia Ministry of Environment and