Showing papers in "Oryx in 1969"

Eagles, Hawks and Falcons of the World by Leslie Brown and Dean Amadon. Two vols. Country Life, 15 gns.

Abstract: before returning to the USA to become Assistant Professor of Zoology at Nebraska: 'were it not for that unrivalled collection of living waterfowl the present work could not have been written'. Unlike Paul Johnsgard, very few of us can be experts in so wide a field. This is a book which will be of the greatest value to all who take an interest in waterfowl, specialist and non-specialist alike. JEFFERY HARRISON

Tortoise Drain in Morocco

Abstract: More than 300,000 tortoises are exported every year from Morocco to Britain for pets. To find out the effect of this trade on the populations in the wild, the author, aided by a grant from the FPS/WWF Revolving Fund, searched the known tortoise areas in Morocco, weighing and measuring all he found. In his six weeks in the field he found only 23 tortoises. For the country as a whole he estimates numbers to be of the order of five million, a very thin spread over a large area of ground. But the trade may have a more serious effect than just reducing numbers. Because only tortoises of 4–6 inches (under-shell measurement) are wanted, the collectors concentrate on these, which often leaves small mature males to mate with very large mature females. If they are unable to do so it could seriously affect reproduction rates.

Conservation in the Sea: A Survey of Marine Parks

Abstract: The idea of national parks and reserves in the sea has developed slowly, but the increasing popularity of underwater swimming, fishing and coral collecting makes it urgently necessary to protect marine life. Like their counterparts on land, marine parks are usually a great tourist attraction – Kenya has recently created two – and a careful balance has to be achieved, with some areas reserved for tourists and others as sanctuaries where also scientific studies can be made.

Crisis in Rhodesia

Abstract: The author argues that Rhodesia's wildlife is in serious danger owing to poor or inadequate management in the national parks and reserves. He traces the stages leading up to the biological collapse of a habitat, which he says has already happened with the Tuli Circle National Land, and suggests that knowledge gained from game ranching and a new method of domestic stock management on privately owned lands has pointed the way for the future. Mr Savory is a consultant ecologist and his views are controversial, but the FPS believes that they merit serious consideration and should be heard.

Wildlife in Taiwan

Abstract: In the spring of 1967 Philip Wayre and his wife took 15 pairs of the rare Swinhoe's pheasant, bred at the Ornamental Pheasant Trust, in Norfolk, of which he is Hon. Director, to Taiwan (Formosa), where this pheasant is endemic, to supplement the sadly reduced wild stock and also provide a captive breeding nucleus for further releases. This article describes the return of the pheasants, and also the wildlife situation in Taiwan, particularly the dangerous demands of the tourist trade for stuffed animals and birds, and for goods decorated with the gorgeous butterflies of Taiwan. These butterflies are being collected in millions to decorate plastic trays and tablecloths.

The New African Conservation Convention

Abstract: The new African conservation convention, drawn up by IUCN and signed by the African heads of state in September 1968, is now in force. Kai Curry-Lindahl, who has been involved in its rather chequered history, tells here the story of how two conventions, differing in scope, came to be drawn up and how the matter has been resolved.

The Bahaman Hutia: a Rodent Refound

Abstract: In 1966, on a small rocky uninhabited island in the Bahamas, the author discovered an abundant population of the Bahaman hutia, a nocturnal rodent the size of a rabbit, which had been reported extinct. In three visits to the islands he has studied the hutias, now strictly protected by the Bahaman government, and is also breeding them in captivity both for study and as a safety precaution – one catastrophe such as an exceptional hurricane could wipe out the whole population. The author is Assistant Professor of Zoology at Rhode Island University.

A Contribution to the Ornithology of Zambia by C. W. Benson and M. P. Stuart Irwin. OUP, 50s.

Abstract: known anywhere (though breeding is presumably regular somewhere in the Orinoco river system). Yet the protection theoretically accorded to it is not fully effective; in some years poaching and disturbance can, and do, effectively prevent the birds from breeding at all. Jan Lindblad gives a vivid account of how he personally took a hand in improving the situation at least in one year; we must hope that the improvement lasts. Q yj SNOW

Wildlife v Sheep and Cattle in Africa

Abstract: Giraffes eat gall-bearing acacias which domestic animals never do; elephants will eat some shrubs which, in the same conditions, even goats will not touch. In Africa wildlife is an efficient user of the poorer land, whereas nearly all grazing land is badly managed by man. It does not benefit man to destroy the wildlife in order to spread his inefficient methods over yet more land. The author–agriculturist and well-known naturalist and conservationist–pleads for sound land management based upon research which would allow a place for the wildlife as an efficient user of certain land and a valuable resource.

The Bongo of the Cherangani Hills

Abstract: A beautiful and rarely seen antelope, the bongo, has decreased considerably in one of its only five known sites in Kenya, the Cherangani Hills. The author was one of a small party who went to the hills to study the bongo among other projects in the summer of 1968. D its size and beauty, very few people have seen the bongo Boocercus eurycerus, and virtually no scientific study has been made of it. This lack of information is mostly because it lives in thick montane forest between 6000 and 9000 feet and, unless completely undisturbed, is highly secretive and alert. The bongo's habits have enabled it to be most successful in its rather restricted habitat. It is also cryptically coloured, its white stripes and patches making it invisible when the sun's rays are broken up by the forest canopy. The bongo belongs to the same sub-family Tragelaphinae of antelopes as the kudu and eland, and is widely distributed in Africa, from Kenya across to the Cameroons in the west. A series of races from West Africa has been described, but these may be of dubious taxonomic validity. However, the Kenyan B. e. isaaci because of its distinct coloration and restricted geographic range is certainly a valid group. It is found only in the Aberdare Mountains and Mount Kenya, where large populations are protected in the national parks; in the South-west Mau Forest Reserve: in small numbers in the forest round the summit of the volcano Mount Loldiani; and in the Cherangani Hills. It was in these hills that our expedition spent eight weeks. The Cherangani Hills rise from the flat farmland 30 miles north-east of Kitale. Our main camp was at Kaibibich which, at nearly 9000 feet, looks down on one side on to a plateau of forest, the 100 square mile KiptaberKapkanya Forest, which, being a national forest, requires a permit for entry. On the other side is a system of deep valleys, some retaining their original gallery forest, with rivers coming down from the central backbone of the hills which rise to nearly 11,000 feet. Until about six years ago the Cheranganis were legendary for the abundance of bongo, and a most reliable estimate in 1960, based on many observations of herds of known and constant size at a salt-lick, was 300 in this 100 square miles of forest. One of these herds probably visited the lick every morning. We, however, spent several days in a hide at the same site, with salt added to the lick, to be rewarded with one 4i-minute view of a single male bongo. Extensive walking through the forest revealed that the typical family herds had broken up, for we never saw the spoor of more than one or two bongo together. Moreover, we found no spoor of any young animal, indicating that the destruction of their social structure had put an end to their breeding. Thus it can only be a short time before this population becomes extinct. In the gallery forest, five miles to the north, the picture was not quite so black. In one small valley four miles long, bongo visited a lick fairly regularly and were observed there, and by walking alone slowly through

Pakistan's Progress

Abstract: The Pakistan Medical Association and the British Medical Association met in Karachi in November and discussed the subject of population growth. In Pakistan, the leaders see that the country's future depends on the acceptance of smaller families. In Pakistan, a child is born every 6 seconds and the population, which was 115 million in 1965, increases by over 300 per hour. Early marriage is very common, 85% of the people live in rural areas, over four fifths of the people are illiterate, and 45% of the population is comprised of children under 15. In the Second Five-year Plan, (1960-1965), the family planning program was administered through existing medical channels. The number of IUD insertions per month is over 45,000, some done by nurses because of the scarcity of doctors.

Red Light for the Sand Lizard in Britain

Abstract: T last Ice Age left the British Isles with a very sparse herpetofauna: six amphibians and six reptiles; and only England has them all. They are not protected in any way, nor do they arouse the interest that birds, flowers and insects do, so it is not surprising that the general decline in our wildlife is outstandingly evident in this neglected group. In fact, the comparative decline per number of species is not exceeded by any other group of animals in this country. However, there are now signs of an increasing interest, if not conscience, in the fate of these animals; let us hope that it is not too late. The crested newt, frog and slow-worm are fast disappearing from southeast England, and the natterjack toad has all but vanished in the south. Of even more immediate concern is the fate of the smooth snake and the sand lizard, which, at the present rate of habitat destruction, can have little more than a decade before they reach the point of no return on the path to extinction. These last two are of particular interest for a specific preypredator relationship, and also for their discrete habitat restriction, which is presumably in harmony with an insular climate on the edge of their geographical range. Even if we ignore their more obvious aesthetic value, their latent scientific value enhances their status, and it is regrettable that no research has been directed towards any aspect of them. Such work would have provided the basis for their conservation. Although on the north-western extreme of their geographic range, their decline is due entirely to man's intervention; there is no suggestion that it is caused by any natural factors. The coastal dune habitat has been destroyed as a result of seaside resort urbanisation, and the lowland heath areas have been rapidly degraded thanks to a combination of afforestation, agriculture, building and extreme recreational pressures. Ironically, heathlands controlled by the military have now become refuges for various species, despite the accompanying disturbance. Until recently the sand lizard Lacerta agilis was locally common on coastal dunes from Dorset to Kent and Denbigh to Lancashire, and also on lowland dry heath in Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey and Kent. Today, apart from the rapidly decreasing habitat in east Dorset and south-west Hampshire, only two remnant areas exist, one in Lancashire and one in Surrey. Until April this year there were two such areas in Surrey, but the larger one has now been destroyed by the Hambledon council.

The Black Rhinoceros in Zambia

Abstract: In Zambia's main wildlife areas, such as the Luangwa valley and the Kafue national park, the black rhinoceros populations are now stable and in some places even increasing—a striking reversal of the pre-war situation. Provided effective control can be maintained by the Department of Game and Fisheries, the author, who is a member of the department, suggests that there is no reason why they should not continue to thrive.

Queensland Protects Sea Turtles

Abstract: In 1968 the Queensland Government gave five species of turtle full protection along the State’s entire 3200-mile-long coast and the whole of the Great Barrier Reef. In this article Dr Bustard tells the history of turtle protection in Queensland and describes the two turtle population studies he has been running since 1964 which, with other studies, led to the protection order.