The Bengal florican is perhaps amongst the most threatened species in the Indian subcontinent. It is virtually extinct throughout its former range due to the loss of grassland habitat, grass burning and, in earlier times, severe hunting pressure. The International Council for Bird Preservation, recognising that too little was known about the bird's present distribution in Nepal to take steps towards its conservation, organised a project to provide the missing information. The 1982 survey described here found that probably no more than 100 Bengal floricans remain in Nepal. The Nepalese Government has already taken one positive step: its planned extensions to one park and two reserves where the florican still breeds should result in substantial increases in areas of the grassland habitat that the birds favour.

Many people are fascinated by cacti and the trade that has grown up to meet the demand from collectors has depleted many wild populations. Threatened cacti species receive legal protection in some countries, notably the US, but attempts to control international trade through CITES are frustrated by poor enforcement. The author works at the Conservation Unit at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which is the UK's Scientific Authority for plants under CITES.

Numbers of Humboldt penguins Spheniscus humboldti, which live on the coast and islands of Chile and Peru, have been declining since the mid-1800s. Extracting guano for fertiliser has damaged their breeding sites; they have been exploited for food and skins and captured for pets or zoos; they are incidentally caught in fishing nets and recent over-fishing may have caused a food shortage. The author surveyed the Humboldt penguins in Peru in 1981 and here discusses the conservation measures that are being taken.

The Namibia Wildlife Trust was set up in 1982, mainly in response to the slaughter by poachers of the elephants and rhinos of the desert in the northern part of the country. The Trust's efforts are meeting with some success but must be sustained if the large mammals of this unique area are to survive.

Over the past 20 years or more fences have been erected around the part of the Kalahari that lies in Botswana without thought about the impact on the wildlife. Over the years the fences have taken a massive toll of animals whose traditional migration routes to water have been sealed off. The authors, who have been working in the Kalahari since 1981, examine the current situation and suggest some of the possible remedies that are so urgently needed.

When a scientific expedition visited Round Island in 1975 it found that introduced rabbits and goats had destroyed most of the vegetation, threatening the survival of the reptiles that depended upon it and causing soil erosion. (See Oryx, 14, page 51.) Eradication of the goats and rabbits was recommended. Seven years later the 1982 Round Island Expedition was launched to monitor the reptile, palm and alien mammal populations. ffPS contributed £100 which was raised through a special appeal. The authors, who participated in both surveys, report on the striking changes that have occurred in just seven years and discuss the future prospects for the island's wildlife, especially for the endemic reptiles.

Many mammal species have been exterminated in Bangladesh; many more are threatened. The author visited all the forested areas, where 80 per cent of the surviving mammals are to be found, for this survey. His report supplements and enforces the primate survey report of S.P. Gittins and A.W. Akonda in the February 1982 Oryx.

Only a small percentage of tropical forests are legally protected and so, if we are to conserve tropical forest species we must encourage sustainable exploitation of unprotected forest areas. Selective timber harvesting is frequently cited as a sustainable use of tropical forests and the authors studied the effects of this kind of exploitation on natural treefall rates, an important regulative process, in the Kibale Forest, Uganda. Their results indicate that levels of destruction typical of capital intensive mechanised timber harvesting seriously disrupt the dynamic balance of the forest. They discuss alternative methods for selective timber harvesting that would be less disruptive and present an objective method which may help rain forest managers determine which multiple-use options are compatible with rain forest conservation.

The 1984 International Whaling Commission meeting approaches and, as has often been the case in the past, there may be some surprises in store. Conservationists await with particular concern the stand that the Member nations take as the moratorium on commercial whaling draws nearer. The author has been a consultant on whales and whaling to many international organisations, including the UN Environment Programme, WWF, Greenpeace, IUCN, International Fund for Animal Welfare, as well as to ffPS. He has been since 1979 Scientific Adviser, and since 1983 Alternate Commissioner, to the delegation of the Republic of Seychelles to the IWC. He has followed the proceedings of the IWC since 1958, mainly as Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN. Here he is writing in his personal capacity, and what he has written should not be taken as representing the position of the Seychelles Government or of any organisation with which he has been associated.

That otter numbers have declined in northern Europe is well known and the Vincent Wildlife Trust is attempting to discover how far this is also true in the southern part the otter's range. Healthy populations have been found in Portugal, Greece and northern Tunisia but declines have occurred in other Mediterranean countries. Here the authors describe the results of a survey in Morocco.

The forests flanking the Panama Canal were protected in its early days for military reasons. Today the forest is seen to be essential to protect water supplies both for people and for the operation of the canal, and Panama has wisely created a national park. The Parque Nacional Soberania preserves 22,000 hectares of Neotropical forest and its wildlife. The author, who has been working in the area for the past 15 years, points out some of the park's advantages and difficulties.

The Mountain Gorilla Project (MGP) has now been running in the field for over five years. This report covers its activities between November 1982 and February 1984 and also considers what has been achieved so far and what has still to be done. A review is timely for we are approaching a critical point in the evolution of the project. The author has been employed by ffPS as the MGP Field Officer in Rwanda for the past two-and-a-half years.

W National Park is shared by Niger, Upper Volta and Benin, and is recognized as being one of the most important parks in West Africa by virtue of its size—11,320 sq km—and its diversity of habitats and species*. Both its proximity to the rapidly growing capital of Niamey, Niger, and the burgeoning trans-Saraha tourist traffic give it great tourist potential. The park and its wildlife, however, are under constantly increasing pressure from poaching, illegal grazing, uncontrolled bush fires, the possibility of phosphate mining, and the lack of financial and material means to combat these problems. The author is a US Peace Corps biologist who worked in Niger for four years, for part of the time attached to the IUCN/WWF aridlands project. He describes conditions and problems in the Niger sector of W National Park and discusses possible solutions.

Réunion is probably the least well known of the islands of the Mascarene archipelago. The author, a veterinarian who spent two years working there, gives an account of its now much diminished wildlife and some of the problems facing the species that remain.

By 1975 the gharial Gavialis gangeticus was nearly extinct due to the combined effects of habitat alteration, hunting and fishing operations and it was made a priority species for the Government of India/FAO/UNDP Crocodile Breeding and Management Project initiated that year. Successful artificial incubation and release schemes in India and Nepal have generated optimism for its future in these two countries but the situation in Bangladesh is not so promising; in 1979 the gharial was believed extinct there. In 1983 the author visited a recently reported breeding site and reports on present conditions.

White rhino travelled considerable distances after release and took up to two years to settle down. Black rhino also travelled widely but sightings were too infrequent to determine the full extent and duration of these movements. Both species have become established and at least seven white and one black rhino have been born. The populations of both species have been increased by immigration from adjacent populations.