Showing papers in "Oryx in 1970"
TL;DR: The Tsavo Research Project as discussed by the authors investigated the role played by the elephants in habitat destruction and found that there were 35,000 ± 7,000 elephants in the park with an additional 12,000 in the peripheral areas.
Abstract: Dr Laws was the first Director of the Tsavo Research Project. This was started in February 1967 to investigate the habitat destruction in the Tsavo National Park, in Kenya, and the part played by the elephants which had been increasing rapidly—the research team's estimate was 23,000 in the park with an additional 12,000 in the peripheral areas, a total of 35,000 ± 7,000. After nine months the research programme, which included sample kills of elephants, was interrupted by the National Parks. Dr Laws spent the next eight months trying to restart the work and to discuss his findings and proposals; no discussions took place and he resigned. The article here consists of part of a paper (slightly amended by Dr Laws) published in the Journal of Reproduction and Fertility, Supplement No 6, 1969, and reproduced by permission. It explains why he regards the sample cropping as essential to find out what is happening in the elephant populations, and whether they are regulating their numbers quickly enough to save the habitat. Since Dr Laws left the Tsavo in June 1968, the Research Project has been carried on under the direction of the Botanist Warden, Dr P. E. Glover, an article by whom appeared in the September ORYX, page 323; a comment on this by Dr Laws will appear in the next ORYX, May 1971.
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TL;DR: A management plan for the Dachigam Sanctuary, the main habitat of the highly endangered hangul, or Kashmir stag, was drawn up by Dr Holloway's two visits to Kashmir as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The object of Dr Holloway's two visits to Kashmir was to draw up a management plan for the Dachigam Sanctuary, the main habitat of the highly endangered hangul, or Kashmir stag. This includes a plan of work for the next five years, and also provision for anti-poaching patrols, the prevention of illegal grazing, wood-cutting and fires, staff training and a research programme. Dr Holloway is staff ecologist with IUCN.
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TL;DR: In the summer of 1969 the author returned to British Honduras, to follow up his previous studies of the manatee Trichecus manatus manatus and two crocodiles Crocodylus acutus and C. moreleti, all ‘Red Book’ species.
Abstract: In the summer of 1969 the author returned to British Honduras, on a Churchill Fellowship, to follow up his previous studies of the manatee Trichecus manatus manatus and two crocodiles Crocodylus acutus and C. moreleti, all ‘Red Book’ species (see ORYX, May 1968). He found a good breeding population of the manatee, but the plight of both crocodiles he describes as desperate.
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TL;DR: It is suggested that what appears to be destruction in the Luangwa Valley in Zambia may not necessarily be so, and that the real vegetation killer is fire in the dry season.
Abstract: Is it always necessary to cull large populations of wild animals such as elephants and hippos, when they appear to be destroying their habitat? In ORYX May 1969, C. A. R. Savory argued the case for doing so in Rhodesia, and the question of whether to crop elephants in parks such as the Tsavo and the Kruger has caused heated controversy. In this article the authors, drawing on their experience of the Luangwa Valley in Zambia, where a cropping scheme was started in 1966, suggest that what appears to be destruction there may not necessarily be so, and that the real vegetation killer is fire in the dry season. R. M. Lawton is an ecologist with the Land Resources Division of the British Directorate of Overseas Surveys, and Mrs Gough is a skilled observer of animal behaviour with considerable experience in Zambia.
10 citations
TL;DR: A plague of the giant cane rat is doing immense damage to crops in Sierra Leone and the hunting slaughter and habitat destruction go on.
Abstract: The Sierra Leone Government has plans for wildlife protection and conservation. But meanwhile the hunting slaughter and habitat destruction go on. One result of killing off leopards, civet cats and pythons was a plague of the giant cane rat which is doing immense damage to crops.
10 citations
TL;DR: The author found that large animals like antelopes will not attempt to go through or past plastic material, and by making a cheap and simple plastic 'curtain' he could drive them with a helicopter into waiting lorries and capture 3500 animals in four months.
Abstract: Faced with the problem of having to capture large numbers of game animals on difficult terrain and in a short time, the author, who is Senior Capture Officer of the Natal Parks Board in South Africa, hit on a remarkably simple and highly successful method. He found that large animals like antelopes will not attempt to go through or past plastic material, and by making a cheap and simple plastic 'curtain' he could drive them with a helicopter into waiting lorries. This way he captured 3500 animals in four months.
TL;DR: In this paper, the author pleads for some forest reserves to be made game reserves as well as to protect the forest wildlife so as to prevent the slaughter of wildlife in the forest reserves.
Abstract: Timber operators building access roads open up the forest in Western Ghana and make it easy for farmer-settlers to come in. The roads also enable them to get their produce to the towns to sell, and thus the farms become profitable and expand, and the wildlife disappears. At the same time the slaughter of wildlife in the forest reserves (its only refuge) is severe and continual, largely because meat is scarce. The author pleads for some forest reserves to be made game reserves as well so as to protect the forest wildlife.
TL;DR: Dr Bustard found that the turtles were reduced to very low numbers, largely through killing for food; his main recommendation for restoring them is the enforcement of the very good legislation that already exists but which is openly flouted.
Abstract: At least four species of sea turtle nest in the Fiji Islands. In January 1970 Dr Bustard, aided by a grant from the FPS, visited the eastern group in order to assess the populations. He found, as had been feared, that the turtles were reduced to very low numbers, largely through killing for food; his main recommendation for restoring them is the enforcement of the very good legislation that already exists but which is openly flouted. He also investigated the status of the unique Fijian iguana and urges the need to establish at least one national park to save it—and that quickly.
TL;DR: The best hope for conserving the crocodile is to build up the numbers to enable the industry to thrive on a sustained yield basis, so that the people will accept crocodile conservation as sensible, practicable and profitable as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Papua and New Guinea have the makings of a sizeable skin industry based on the two native crocodiles. But the industry today is in danger of collapse as a result of overhunting in the accessible crocodile areas. The best hope for conserving the crocodile is to build up the numbers to enable the industry to thrive on a sustained yield basis, so that the people will accept crocodile conservation as sensible, practicable and profitable. Dr. Bustard has made an extensive survey and study of the problem in the Territory, and here describes the situation and the recommendations he has made to the Government.
TL;DR: The Environmental Revolution: a guide for the new masters of the world, by Max Nicholson as mentioned in this paper is a good example of a book that can be seen as a kind of sermon.
Abstract: The Environmental Revolution: a guide for the new masters of the world, by Max Nicholson. Hodder & Stoughton, 84s. I always wondered what would happen to the world when the superabundant energies of Max Nicholson were released from the daily shackles of guiding the Nature Conservancy. Now his two post-Conservancy books—so different from his six pre-Conservancy ones on birds—are beginning to show us. The secret revolutionary, fastening limpet bombs on the undersurface of respected institutions, is succeeded by the open and avowed revolutionary calling for the bouleversement of accepted practices and thought processes that is absolutely essential if human society is to reach the 21st century with a reasonable prospect of surviving to the middle of it. The first half of this book is a sermon, and like so many other sermons in that it could have been expressed more succinctly, and that it is likely to be heard by many more of the converted than of the unconverted. Conservationists need to read the first half only the better to equip themselves with the message: that society at large, political, economic, religious, simply must take notice of what ecologists are saying about the effects of modern technological civilisation on the environment. When this message has been read and digested by 90 per cent more of the unconverted than of the converted it will have succeeded} it is up to us, the conservationists, to achieve this aim. The second half is a badly needed history of the conservation movement since Teddy Roosevelt launched it at the turn of the century. (I know he was anticipated by many centuries by St Cuthbert, but the saint's countrymen can only be ashamed of not having followed his lead for so long). This part is so good and readable that it reinforces my feeling that not only historians but nobody else ought to write sermons. A good pamphlet is what we need now. Is it too much to ask Max to condense the first half of this book into 5000 words of a really fighting pamphlet that could have a circulation of millions ? RICHARD FITTER
TL;DR: The Centenary Archive 1903-2003, a fully searchable database of 100 years of the publications of Fauna and Flora International, is presented in this article, where the Society was founded as the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire.
Abstract: The PDF is reproduced with permission from the CD version of The Centenary Archive 1903-2003, a fully searchable database of 100 years of the publications of Fauna and Flora International. More information on: http://www.fauna-flora.org/ The Society was founded in 1903 as the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire, and subsequently named the Fauna and Flora Preservation Society. Fauna & Flora International is conserving the planet’s threatened species and ecosystems – with the people and communities who depend on them.
TL;DR: The author, who was Wildlife Adviser to the Ethiopian Government from 1965-70, has worked unceasingly to achieve this as well as other parks and reserves to protect Ethiopia's still remarkably rich wildlife.
Abstract: Sixty square miles of the Simien Mountains, home of two of Ethiopia's most seriously endangered wild mammals, the walla ibex and Simien fox, both endemics, has at last been declared a national park. The author, who was Wildlife Adviser to the Ethiopian Government from 1965-70 (he has just gone in a similar capacity to Nepal) has worked unceasingly to achieve this as well as other parks and reserves to protect Ethiopia's still remarkably rich wildlife. This is the second national park to be gazetted in Ethiopia; the Awash park, which the FPS African tour visited in February this year, was declared early in 1968.
TL;DR: Primitive breeds of sheep and goats, such as the Ronaldsay sheep of Orkney, could be in danger of disappearing with the present rapid decline in pastoral farming, but these breeds have an important part to play in modern livestock breeding.
Abstract: Primitive breeds of sheep and goats, such as the Ronaldsay sheep of Orkney, could be in danger of disappearing with the present rapid decline in pastoral farming. The authors, both members of the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources in Edinburgh University, point out that, quite apart from their historical and cultural interest, these breeds have an important part to play in modern livestock breeding, which needs a constant infusion of new genes from unimproved breeds to get the benefits of hybrid vigour. Moreover these primitive breeds are able to use the poor land and live in the harsh environment which no modern hybrid sheep can stand.
TL;DR: The authors in this article described the work he has been doing on Svalbard (Spitsbergen) and described the management plans that can be evolved to ensure the survival of the polar bear.
Abstract: Scientists and conservationists in five circumpolar countries are collaborating in a programme of research on the polar bear so that management plans can be evolved to ensure the survival of this endangered ‘Red Book’ animal. The author, who is an ecologist in the Institutt for Matin Biologi in Oslo University, describes the work he has been doing on Svalbard (Spitsbergen).
TL;DR: Madagascar has one of the most interesting and scientifically valuable faunas in the world, with many endemic species, notably the lemurs as mentioned in this paper. But forest destruction here as elsewhere threatens its survival.
Abstract: Madagascar has one of the most interesting and scientifically valuable faunas in the world, with many endemic species, notably the lemurs. But forest destruction here as elsewhere threatens its survival. In October 1970 IUCN held a conference in Tananarive to highlight the island's importance and to interest both government and people in conserving this unique wildlife. FPS was represented by the Hon. Secretary, who here describes the situation and reports several hopeful and encouraging aspects.