Kalahari safaris struggle in drought - 11th March 2020

This farm is in South Africa. Over one thousand animals died here in the last few months.

The farm is in the Kalahari area. This year, there is no rain here. No-one can remember bad weather like this.

Burger Schoeman works at Thuru Lodge; "we are trying to go on as we are at the moment, but it's only going to be so long before all our resources are out and we don't have any money left to do what we do."

Tourists visit Thuru Lodge. The tourists shoot animals for sport. But there are no healthy animals. No one is coming to the Lodge.

Burger Schoeman: "unfortunately the drought forced us to place all our bookings on hold. We can't book a guy coming from overseas having the safari feeling and trying to give him the best safari he ever had but the animals that are here are very skinny and is dying."

Thuru Lodge is feeding the animals. This costs $14,000 a month. Farm workers are not getting tips from tourists. Now, they don't make much money.

Soon, the rainy season will come. This will help the situation. But the area needs a year to get back to normal. Lots of businesses will close during this time.