Thirteen members of the FPS, escorted by Dr David Jenkins, received a very special welcome in Botswana and Zambia last July/August. Not only did they see a wealth of wildlife, they were entertained and helped by conservationists and addressed by the Zambian Minister of State; they were also able to hear from and have discussions with workers in the field which gave them an insight into some conservation problems and made their trip ‘very worthwhile’.

Following a visit to Tanzania in the autumn of 1972, the author, who, until 1971, was Director of National Parks in Tanzania, reports the good news that the Government's decision to allow grazing of domestic animals in a critical area bordering the Serengeti National Park has in fact been strictly interpreted. The amount of grazing is declining and is likely to do so still more.

Dr Karl B. Koford spent seven months last year studying the status and distribution of the spotted cats, especially jaguar and ocelot, in tropical America from Mexico south to Brazil and Argentina. This project, to which FPS contributed through the Oryx 100% Fund, is mainly funded by the International Fur Trade Federation (as part of the agreement in December 1970 that introduced a voluntary ban on the use of five endangered fur species, including leopards and the cheetah), the Frankfurt Zoological Society and WWF. The following is taken from Dr Koford's ‘interim conservation review’—his final report will come later this year—together with some points from his separate reports on ten Latin American countries.

In 1965 there were eleven populations of the already declining northern race of the swamp deer in Uttar Pradesh, in northern India; by 1972 eight of these had disappeared, either through habitat destruction, such as the planting of eucalyptus and cultivation, crop-protection shooting or poaching. Probably only the fact that the meat is tough and the skin poor have saved the deer from disappearing completely in the state. The author describes a brief survey he made in the summer of 1972, estimates numbers and status, describes the threats, and lists the immediate needs for a conservation programme. The author is Staff Ecologist with IUCN.

The Sudan today has three National Parks and fifteen game reserves. In addition there are sanctuaries and forest reserves where hunting is forbidden.

Dinder National Park covers 7120 sq. km (2750 sq. miles) and lies 406 km (315 miles) south-east from Khartoum, near the Ethiopian border in Blue Nile Province. Its fine assemblage of game includes elephant (during the rains), hippopotamus, giraffe, buffalo, roan antelope, waterbuck, tiang, greater kudu, red-fronted and Soemmering's gazelle, reedbuck, bushbuck, oribi, duiker, Salt's dikdik, warthog, bush pig, lion, leopard, cheetah, hyaena, wild dog, grivet and red hussar monkeys, and baboon. According to Dr William Dasmann (in litt. August 1972) the status of tora and lelwel hartebeest is uncertain. It has been decided not to reintroduce hippopotamus as poachers would be the only gainers.

Depopulation of the Scottish Highlands in the seventeenth century was followed by intense exploitation and often misuse of the land, with serious overgrazing, burning and wildlife destruction. Today the main land uses are hill sheep farming, crofting, sport, and, more recently, commercial timber growing, nature conservation, hydroelectric schemes and tourism. The author, who is on the staff of the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources in Edinburgh University, examines the effect of these activities on four main wildlife species – golden eagle, red deer, red grouse and red fox – and describes some of the mistaken management practices which damage the wildlife, often without producing the desired results.

Ian Strange asks as to correct a wrong figure in his article Wildlife in the Falklands in the January 1972 issue. On page 253, in the first paragraph below the heading ‘Penguin Harvest’, line 5 should read: ‘payment of five shillings per 1000 eggs…’ (not per 100).

In Oryx September 1971, (pp 103–107), we described the rediscovery in Assam of two animals that had been feared extinct—the pygmy hog Sus sylvanius and the hispid hare Caprolagus hispidus. Guy Mountfort, who recently returned from a visit to India, Nepal and Sikkim on behalf of the World Wildlife Fund, reports encouraging news of these two Red Book species.

In this survey of the evidence for the yeti's existence and likely identity, the authors point out that the misleadingly named ‘abominable snowman’ is not a creature of the snows at all, but should be looked for in the dense Himalayan forests, which could support it. At present the authors are engaged in studying one such forest area, the Arun Valley between Everest and Kanchenjunga, on behalf of the Thailand Association for the Conservation of Wildlife. In January this year they reported having had ‘three incidents involving yeti so far, but only one yielded solid evidence’. On December 18 Cronin's and Emery's tent on a ridge in the upper Arun ‘was visited by an animal which left tracks that are not referable to any known animal’—see the photograph by Jeflrey McNeely on the next page.

Early in 1972 the author visited Tunisia at the request of the British Council to study all aspects of nature conservation. This article is a brief résumé of his report.

The black lechwe of northern Zambia are today confined entirely to one area, the Bangweulu floodplain. Numbers have shrunk from more than half-a-million as recently as 50 years ago to an estimated 16,000 today. The authors, who have been engaged in a 3½-year research project on these lechwe, are able to show that the numbers today are well below the carrying capacity of the floodplains, and that poaching is the cause. The highly specialised lechwe is the only mammal capable of exploiting the high fertility of the floodplain, which could support ten times the present numbers. Allowed to increase and properly managed on sustained yield principles, the black lechwe could provide a large quantity of badly needed protein in Zambia.

The successful breeding of hawksbill turtles on experimental farms on islands in the Torres Strait, north of Australia, has persuaded the islanders to leave the turtle eggs (formerly taken for food) for the farms. The author argues the case for using eggs from the wild in these particular areas, and also urges the importance of allowing a turtle industry that will bring profit to the islanders—and no one else.

In this report on his field survey of Ethiopian hartebeests, two of which—Swayne's, now extinct outside Ethiopia, and the tora—are in the Red Data Book, Melvin Bolton describes the known populations and recommends the appropriate conservation measures. His most encouraging discovery was a population—unfortunately in a heavily cultivated area—of at least 500 Swayne's hartebeest, bringing the estimated total for this subspecies to 600—700. His study shows that it is not always easy to ascribe all hartebeests to the three main subspecies or races, and he describes two intergrades with distinctive features. The field work was helped with small grants from the FPS and the WWF.