diff --git a/django/contrib/gis/gdal/libgdal.py b/django/contrib/gis/gdal/libgdal.py
index 256ddb24ed..dda9c64eb1 100644
--- a/django/contrib/gis/gdal/libgdal.py
+++ b/django/contrib/gis/gdal/libgdal.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ elif os.name == 'nt':
     lib_names = ['gdal18', 'gdal17', 'gdal16', 'gdal15']
 elif os.name == 'posix':
     # *NIX library names.
-    lib_names = ['gdal', 'GDAL', 'gdal1.7.0', 'gdal1.6.0', 'gdal1.5.0', 'gdal1.4.0']
+    lib_names = ['gdal', 'GDAL', 'gdal1.8.0', 'gdal1.7.0', 'gdal1.6.0', 'gdal1.5.0', 'gdal1.4.0']
 else:
     raise OGRException('Unsupported OS "%s"' % os.name)