scholarly journals Erosion and the Hippos

Oryx ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-304
Author(s):  
Paul Leyhausen

In recent years several African national parks have been faced with the ‘hippo problem’ — a large population of hippos accused of causing serious erosion and habitat destruction. Should they be culled? Uganda decided yes, in the Rwenzori National Park (formerly Queen Elizabeth); but the Zaire (formerly Belgian Congo) parks have always been regarded as strict nature reserves and no killing has been allowed. However, at a joint meeting of the Survival Service and the National Parks Commissions, at Kinshasa, last September, the question was raised in regard to the Virunga (formerly Albert) National Park. The commissions were asked to advise the Parks Administration on the possible relationship between the hippopotamus population and the erosion of land adjacent to the Semliki, Rutshuru and Rwindi rivers. It had been suggested that a hippopotamus population explosion in recent years was responsible for overgrazing and damage to the river banks, increasing erosion to such a degree that the whole river valley was threatened with denudation and destruction. Should the hippopotamus population be culled? Dr Paul Leyhausen was among the delegates who were able to visit the Virunga park in the course of the IUCN meetings, and in this note records his observations and conclusions on the problem and incidentally gives some idea of the complications of the situation.

1996 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 485-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Timoney

Logging of the riparian old-growth white spruce forests of Wood Buffalo National Park took place from 1951 to 1991. Operations were conducted in the Peace River valley in the Big Island block (Timber Berth (TB) 408) and the Peace Delta block, and in the Athabasca River valley. Approximately 70% of the pre-logging old-growth riparian forests have been lost to logging, leaving a remnant of ~100 km2 in the park, of which ~30 km2 are found in TB408. A minimum of 100 km2 has been logged from TB408. Natural regeneration has failed on 93% of these lands (9300 ha). The logging agreement, which expired in 1981, was renewed in 1983, the same year in which Wood Buffalo National Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The history of logging in Wood Buffalo National Park is characterized by government mismanagement and industrial malpractice. There was never legal authority to log in Wood Buffalo National Park, as it contravened the National Parks Act (1930). The need for restoration is discussed. Key words: boreal, forestry, management, Peace River, riparian, white spruce, Wood Buffalo National Park


Oryx ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 355-361
Author(s):  
R. M. Laws

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.


Koedoe ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J.I. De Wet ◽  
H.J. Schoonbee

In South Africa, Ceratogyrus is presently protected by the Transvaal Provincial Nature Conservation Ordinance. Owing to the demand for these spiders as pets they are classified as Commercially Threatened in terms of the ILJCN system. It was found, however, that the two known species in the Transvaal are well represented in protected areas which include nature reserves and national parks. Ceratogyrus bechuanicus is well represented in the Kruger National Park, Messina, D'nyala and Atherstone provincial nature reserves, as well as in the Klaserie and Sabi Sand private nature reserves in the Transvaal. The only conservation area in which C. brachycephalus has been located is the Messina Provincial Nature Reserve. With its much smaller distribution, C. brachycephalus has a higher conservation priority than C. bechuanicus. Applied ecological work needs to be done so that comprehensive species conservation plans for both species can be compiled.


Koedoe ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
A.S. Dippenaar-Schoeman

This study forms part of the South African National Survey of Arachnida (SANSA), initiated in 1997 with the main aim to create an inventory of the arachnid fauna of South Africa (Dippenaar-Schoeman & Craemer 2000). One of the objectives of SANSA is to assess the number of arachnid species presently protected in conserved areas in the country. Check lists of spiders are now available for three national parks, three nature reserves and a conservancy. These areas include: Mountain Zebra National Park (Dippenaar-Schoeman 1988); Karoo National Park (Dippenaar-Schoeman et al. 1999); Kruger National Park (Dippenaar- Schoeman & Leroy 2002); Roodeplaatdam Nature Reserve (Dippenaar-Schoeman et al. 1989); Makelali Nature Reserve (Whitmore et al. 2001, 2002); Swartberg Nature Reserve (Dippenaar-Schoeman et al. 2005); and the Soutpansberg Conservancy (Foord et al. 2002).


Author(s):  
V. Khudoba

The article is dedicated to the analysis of the network of reserves, national parks and regional landscape parks in Western Volyn-Podillia region. The research has determined their level of representation of nature-territorial complexes of the region itself. It has been suggested in the article to optimize these objects in order to increase their representation by means of creating more regional landscape parks. Key words: nature reserves stock, natural reserve, national park, regional landscape park, natureterritorial complexes.


Oryx ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 96-99
Author(s):  
J. Haezaert

Thanks to the protection afforded it by the Belgian Government, the northern race of the white, or square-lipped rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum cottoni, is increasing in the Garamba National Park of the Belgian Congo. This park was specially created in 1938 to preserve the species, whose numbers there were down to about a hundred individuals. They now probably approach 1,000. But the story of the black rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis, is very different. Once common in the savannahs of Katanga, but now exterminated there, it used also to exist in the east of Ruanda, notably in what is now the Kagera National Park. So, in 1958, bearing in mind its success with the white rhinoceros, the National Parks of the Belgian Congo decided to try to reintroduce the black rhinoceros into Kagera. This rhinoceros is still not rare in some parts of Tanganyika Territory, especially in Karagwe district, but that country is separated from the Kagera Park in Ruanda by the River Kagera itself.


Author(s):  
V.I. Usenko ◽  
◽  
E.A. Zaikina ◽  
B.M. Mbonde ◽  
◽  
...  

In the conditions of the Serengeti National Park (Tanzania), female lions were immobilized in order to conduct clinical, physiological and special studies using xylazine and ketamine, and atypamezol as an antidote. The first signs of immobilization in lionesses after the use of xylazine and ketamine occur in 4.8±0.8 minutes, and the restoration of mobility after the use of the antidote – in 1.5 minutes. Depression of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems in lionesses and disorders of the general condition after the use of the above-mentioned drugs were not noted, which allows us to recommend the use of such a combination of drugs for immobilizing wild animals in national parks, nature reserves and zoos.


Author(s):  
Terence Young ◽  
Alan MacEachern ◽  
Lary Dilsaver

This essay explores the evolving international relationship of the two national park agencies that in 1968 began to offer joint training classes for protected-area managers from around the world. Within the British settler societies that dominated nineteenth century park-making, the United States’ National Park Service (NPS) and Canada’s National Parks Branch were the most closely linked and most frequently cooperative. Contrary to campfire myths and nationalist narratives, however, the relationship was not a one-way flow of information and motivation from the US to Canada. Indeed, the latter boasted a park bureaucracy before the NPS was established. The relationship of the two nations’ park leaders in the half century leading up to 1968 demonstrates the complexity of defining the influences on park management and its diffusion from one country to another.


Author(s):  
Alan D. Roe

Into Russian Nature examines the history of the Russian national park movement. Russian biologists and geographers had been intrigued with the idea of establishing national parks before the Great October Revolution but pushed the Soviet government successfully to establish nature reserves (zapovedniki) during the USSR’s first decades. However, as the state pushed scientists to make zapovedniki more “useful” during the 1930s, some of the system’s staunchest defenders started supporting tourism in them. In the decades after World War II, the USSR experienced a tourism boom and faced a chronic shortage of tourism facilities. Also during these years, Soviet scientists took active part in Western-dominated international environmental protection organizations, where they became more familiar with national parks. In turn, they enthusiastically promoted parks for the USSR as a means to reconcile environmental protection and economic development goals, bring international respect to Soviet nature protection efforts, and help instill a love for the country’s nature and a desire to protect it in Russian/Soviet citizens. By the late 1980s, their supporters pushed transformative, and in some cases quixotic, park proposals. At the same time, national park opponents presented them as an unaffordable luxury during a time of economic struggle, especially after the USSR’s collapse. Despite unprecedented collaboration with international organizations, Russian national parks received little governmental support as they became mired in land-use conflicts with local populations. While the history of Russia’s national parks illustrates a bold attempt at reform, the state’s failure’s to support them has left Russian park supporters deeply disillusioned.


Author(s):  
Agnieszka Napierała ◽  
Jerzy Błoszyk

AbstractThe necessity of monitoring changes occurring in soil compels us to look for new methods that will allow easy and precise evaluation of the soil quality in a given area. One proposed method is the maturity index (MI) – an index that is based on the distribution of species along the r-to-K continuum in examined populations. In this study, mites from the suborder Uropodina (Acari: Mesostigmata) were examined for their appropriateness in MI-based assessments of soil quality. The first aim of the study was to establish the criteria on the basis of which the evaluation of the r-to-K reproductive strategies was conducted for Uropodina in the examined communities. The second aim was to evaluate the performance of the maturity index of communities of Uropodina as indicator of human-caused disturbance in five areas that are legally protected in Poland. The selected areas were: Białowieża Primeval Forest, Gorce National Park, and three nature reserves: Jakubowo, Las Grądowy nad Mogilnicą, and Cisy Staropolskie im. Leona Wyczółkowskiego. We found that as many as 68 out of the 96 analyzed Uropodina species in Poland are K-stategists. The highest values of the maturity index were recorded for the nature reserves Cisy Staropolskie im. Leona Wyczółkowskiego and the Białowieża Primeval Forest.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document