Botswana’s cheetah population has crashed by half over the past 15 years to just 956 individuals, a devastating trend revealed by Cheetah Conservation Botswana (CCB) Human-Wildlife Coexistence Specialist Jane Horgan.
Speaking at the second annual Conservation on Tap session in Maun, Horgan stated that while camera traps deployed in wildlife corridors are critical for surveying cheetah densities and mapping territories, they are uncovering deeply worrying data. Analysis shows most of the disappearing cheetahs are migrating across the border into Namibia.
Compounding the crisis, Horgan revealed that these research cameras meant to track animal movement, behaviour, and ecosystem changes are frequently recording illegal human activity. The footage includes poaching, littering, and attempts to steal the devices, which is actively slowing down vital conservation work.
“When we have enough evidence, we either delete the footage or hand it over to the Department of Wildlife and National Parks to open poaching cases instead, then we start all over again,” Horgan said.
Theft and damage are not exclusively human problems. Horgan noted that brown hyenas have also been caught with the equipment, including one instance where a team recovered a camera carried kilometres away from its corridor. Aggressive elephants pose another threat, frequently attacking and destroying the devices.
Despite these setbacks, Horgan stressed that camera traps remain vital for both conservationists and communities. The technology allows CCB to leverage local indigenous knowledge to identify high-movement areas. Through this collaboration, communities share traditional insights on reading animal moods, while CCB provides data on where and when wildlife is likely to appear, fostering peaceful coexistence.
Camera traps have also successfully identified elusive species, such as genets, in terrains that are hard to reach on foot.
Adding another layer of challenges, Dr Tempe Adams, a conservation biologist at the Botswana Elephant Centre (BEC), noted that infrastructure development projects are forcing wildlife to alter their movement patterns within established corridors, complicating tracking efforts. Bureaucratic delays also stall research, with BEC waiting two years for camera trap installation approvals in one instance.
Nevertheless, the resulting data is proving essential. BEC research shows that elephants primarily enter villages in search of water between July and December, with conflicts peaking in October. Dr Adams urged the public to use this timeline to reduce human-wildlife conflict.
Data also indicates a 50% spike in overlapping activity between humans and species such as baboons, hyenas, impalas, and kudus within agricultural corridors at identical times.
For both CCB and BEC, the primary goal remains peaceful coexistence. Achieving this requires sharing public information about wildlife corridors and camera placement so communities can plan effectively and stay safe.
As Horgan noted, the cameras do more than count animals they document the complex story of how humans and wildlife share, and sometimes clash in, the same spaces. Against the pressures of poaching, climate change, and development, the footage from these small cameras remains one of Botswana’s best tools for regional protection.
