Conservation & Sustainability
A Shared Future for Namibia’s Lions: An Update From the Field
November 10, 2026
Four months ago, Onguma Safari Camps and the Namibian Lion Trust set out to put reliable communication into the hands of the people who protect lion on foot in Namibia’s Kunene Region. The Garmin inReach Messenger pilot commenced in July 2026, and since then it has grown, been tested by distance and heat, and begun to show us something new about how lion move through this vast landscape.
This is the first in a series of updates from the field, and here is what we have learned so far.
Two More Rangers Join the Programme
The pilot has grown. Two additional Lion Rangers have joined the inReach Messenger Programme: Richo Eichab, Patrol Team Leader for the southern zone, and Uezekandavii Nguezeeta, known to colleagues as Kandavii, who focuses on the eastern conflict hotspots. Both spend much of their working life on foot, moving through lion range to alert farmers when lion are moving close to villages and livestock herds, work that depends entirely on being reachable when it matters most.
Learning as We Go
Pilot projects rarely run exactly to plan, and this one has been no exception. The first real challenge was simply keeping the devices charged. In the remote reaches of Kunene, reliable charging points are scarce, and the inReach Messengers were not lasting a full week in the field.
The Lion Rangers and the Namibian Lion Trust have since worked out a routine that solves this for now: devices are switched off overnight, powered on only for the duration of a patrol, and switched off again back at the fly-camp. This simple change has stretched battery life to roughly a month between charges. The coming dry season, with daytime temperatures expected to reach 45 to 50 degrees Celsius, will be the next real test of that solution.
A Clearer Picture of the Landscape
Alongside the challenges, the devices are already proving their worth in a way that goes beyond emergency communication. As Lion Rangers patrol, they are able to send messages back to the Namibian Lion Trust office from specific points of interest, waterpoints, lion sightings, and wildlife or livestock mortality locations among them.
Over time, this record will help the Trust build a far more detailed picture of the landscape: where conflict hotspots cluster, which routes lion travel most often, and how water and food availability shape movement for both predator and prey, detail that GPS satellite collars alone do not capture.
What the Rangers Are Saying
Feedback from the field has been largely positive. Rangers report real peace of mind in knowing they can reach the Namibian Lion Trust office administrator, Dorien Kharuxas, as well as two mobile phone contacts, should an emergency arise while they are out of network. Several have also noted the value of receiving real-time locations for collared lion, information that helps them respond faster and keep both livestock and lion safer.
What This Means for You
By choosing to stay at one of our camps, you are helping to fund work like this, hundreds of kilometres from our gates, where two Lion Rangers now carry a direct line back to safety, and where a growing record of patrol data is helping protect Namibia’s desert-adapted lions for the long term.
This is the first of several updates we will be sharing as the partnership continues.
Plan your safari with Onguma and be part of a reserve where conservation is lived, not just spoken.
