For Dr Lineekela Nauyoma, a part-time lecturer in UNAM’s Department of Environmental Science, the numbers behind wildlife populations have always mattered. A recent workshop at the University of Oxford gave him sharper tools to make sense of them.
Dr. Nauyoma, who completed his PhD in Wildlife Management in 2025, was one of a competitive international group selected for the Bayesian Population Analysis (BPA) workshop.
The five-day programme covered Bayesian statistical inference and computation, generalised linear and mixed models, site-occupancy and N-mixture models, state-space models, Cormack-Jolly-Seber and multistate capture-recapture models, and integrated population models. Working in R, NIMBLE and JAGS, he strengthened his ability to build hierarchical ecological models, estimate uncertainty, integrate multiple data sources and produce reproducible analytical workflows.
“The training has improved my technical capacity to analyse complex wildlife datasets and strengthened my independence as an early-career researcher, particularly in developing analyses that can underpin publishable, decision-relevant research,” said Dr. Nauyoma. His attendance was funded by the Namibia National Commission for UNESCO and the Swiss Ornithological Institute, covering airfare, meals and accommodation.
Building an International Profile
The workshop adds to a growing international research record. Dr. Nauyoma’s study, “Modelling Roan and Sable Patterns of Spatial Distribution in the Mudumu National Park, Namibia,” has been accepted for poster presentation at the International Statistical Ecology Conference in Mérida, Mexico, in January 2027, widely regarded as the largest gathering of its kind in statistical ecology.
His focus now turns to applying these methods locally. In late 2025, he and Professor Ezequiel Fabiano spent a week at Namdeb’s Oranjemund mining sites, within Tsau //Khaeb (Sperrgebiet) National Park, exploring collaborative wildlife ecology and genetic research between UNAM and Namdeb, a visit funded by Namdeb.
“I want my research to offer actionable solutions for biodiversity management amidst climate change and national industrial expansions, such as the current mining boom,” Dr Nauyoma said.
The Oxford workshop ran from 10 to 14 August 2026. The visit to Namdeb’s Oranjemund sites took place in late 2025.
