By the Namibia Wild Horses Foundation
On the Garub plains of south-western Namibia, home to the Namib wild horses, horses play, gallop across the desert and seek out grazing as they have done for the last hundred years. But all is not as it seems. The population of Namibs is on the brink of extinction and the situation is once again critical.
Since 2012 when a pack of Spotted Hyenas moved into the area and began preying on the horses, the population has plummeted from 286 to a mere 79 horses. In 2013 alone, the hyenas killed a hundred horses, fifty of them foals. Not one foal has survived over the last five years, making the youngest horse seven years old.
There was brief respite towards the end of last year. Rains had blessed the desert in May, breaking the long drought, a carpet of grass covered the desert floor and the hyenas moved off to adjacent land. The horses gained condition and the first foals were born. New life once again graced the Namib Desert.
Hope shimmered on the desert floor like gold, and it appeared that the Namibs had a chance. It wasn’t to last long, however. The hyenas returned to Garub and the brief glimmer of hope was soon extinguished.
After several years of the Namibia Wild Horses Foundation appealing to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) to either manage the hyenas or grant the Foundation custodianship to move the horses to a safer home, the Ministry released a statement in December 2018 that they would relocate the hyenas. Namibia welcomed the good news. The Ministry acknowledged the value of the Namib population for tourism and as a national heritage, and affirmed that it would ensure its survival.
Their attempts to bait the hyenas proved unsuccessful and they made plans to return at the beginning of the year. A month has since lapsed with no action and the hyenas are again voraciously predating on the wild horses.
All the foals born in the last few months, except for one, have been killed. The idyllic happy scene on the Garub plains has been reversed as it reverts to being a battleground where the only victims are the horses. A few of the Namib mares are still expecting. They are the very last hope.
We are now in the final hour of the wild horses’ existence on the planet. Without the chance for new life, the population is doomed. The last foal remains on the desert plains and any day could be its last, ending the hope of a new generation.
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Waar kom hulle vandaan?
Theories regarding the origin
Different theories regarding the origin of these horses exist. It is certain that the horses are no true wild horses, but that they originate from domestic horses. But from which ones? Here are some explanation attempts:
1. In the area of the Namib Desert domestic horses have been bred by Hansheinrich von Wolf at Duwisib and by Emil Kremplin at Kubub. These studs are situated about 250 km north-east of Garub (where the feral horses reside today). Thus the feral horses might originate from horses that went astray or were let free during the turmoil of war in 1915. However the fact that the amount of horses would not have been enough to generate today’s population of feral horses contradicts this theory.
2. Another theory explains that the wild horses originate from the horses of the German army – the “Schutztruppe” – which were let loose or went astray during the retreat from the South African army in 1915.
3. Again another explanation refers to a German baron who stranded with a ship load of horses and other animals about 25 km south of the Orange mouth at the end of the 19th century.
4. During the year 1915, during the First World War and the combat against the German Schutztruppe, about 10,000 South African soldiers with 6,000 horses were stationed at Garub. A German air force lieutenant was able to drop a bomb into the enemy’s camp, and about 1700 of the surviving horses fled into the desert. It is not very likely that big efforts were made to catch these horses again. There surely would not have been enough time as the South Africans were busy chasing after the retreating Germans.
5. After the latest research, where the historian Water Rusch and the tourism entrepreneur Mannfred Goldbeck from Namibia deserve mentioning, the following theory has been developed: the stud horses of the breeding farm at Duwisib and Kubub had many resemblances. These specific characteristics, especially amongst the Kremplin stud, one can still find today amongst the feral horses. Thus these horses must have met with the majority of South African horses in the mountains of Aus. Several natural fountains existed here, supplying the horses with water.
Laas week het hulle berig dit is die bruin hiëna. 
Laas week het hulle berig dit is die bruin hiëna. 
