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.

An experimental research project is being carried out at Bako National Park in Sarawak to devise means by which young orphaned orang-utans can be re-established to wild living.

It has been realized for a decade that the management of wild animals would be greatly facilitated if a method could be found for their ready capture and handling. The need for such a method has become accentuated in recent years with the increasing interest in wild life, and also with the problems associated with a reduction in the number of wild animals combined with a decrease in the amount of space available for their natural existence. Much work has been done on the catching and marking of animals such as birds, fishes, whales and seals. It is only recently that effective methods are being evolved for the capture of the larger land mammals, such as antelope, for marking and other purposes such as body measurements and weighing, as well as the collecting of samples for pathological or parasitological study. This form of direct control of wild animals is opening up new vistas of wild life management in Africa, and it is thought that the use of these methods may have similar application to wild animals in other regions and parts of the world, both as a means of increasing our knowledge of their habits, ecology and physiology, and in direct management such as capture for transport to other areas, vaccination and occasional therapeutic veterinary interference.

Although the tamaraw occurred on Luzon during the Pleistocene, in historic times this buffalo has been restricted to the Philippine island of Mindoro. There it established a reputation for aggressiveness that made it widely known in the Philippines, but it was not described for science until 1888. It has been estimated that 10,000 tamaraw Bubalus mindorensis occupied Mindoro island in 1900 but by 1949 numbers had declined to 1000 animals, and in 1953 fewer than 250 remained. In 1969 Harrisson estimated that about 100 survived in three of their four known areas. Poaching was the main cause of the decline. Thanks to Harrisson's and General Lindbergh's efforts, 1969 also marked the start of the Philippine Government's tamaraw conservation effort, and wardens and guards were posted at the Mt Iglit Game Refuge and Bird Sanctuary in Occidental Mindoro. Between May 1972 and March 1974 I conducted a tamaraw study on 2000 hectares of the refuge where the major tamaraw population was to be found.

Since the last report on the work of the Mountain Gorilla Project (Oryx, August 1980), all the three main programmes in Rwanda – conservation education, park protection and park development – have made substantial progress.