In the last issue of ORYX we drew attention to the dangers from chemicals for the bird life of the Rift Valley lakes in East Africa (page 283). This is particularly serious in Lake Nakuru where a million flamingos are threatened by both chemicals and the sewage effluent from the town of Nakuru which all goes untreated into the lake. Sir Landsborough points out that only on the basis of facts will the authorities listen to demands that the pollution be stopped—and that means research. The new Baharini Wildlife Sanctuary has been established on the lake shores with the triple purpose of providing facilities for such research, as well as for education and tourism—the last designed eventually to pay for the first two. But money is needed to get the research started now. The originator of the project, John Hopcraft, spoke about it at an FPS meeting on September 22, and a letter from Sir Landsborough was published by The Times on September 21. The World Wildlife Fund is supporting the project and the FPS will be pleased to pass on contributions from any members or others who would like to help save the Nakuru flamingos.

Early in 1969, at the request of the Director of Uganda Nationa Parks, Dr. Cott made a third survey of the status and biology of the Nile crocodile on the Victoria Nile below Murchison Falls, continuing the field studies he made in 1967 and 1968. This report on his 1969 work supplements that on the earlier studies (see ORYX, September, 1968) and reinforces his previous findings and recommendations. In 1969 the crocodiles again lost many eggs to predators, and the main cause was still human disturbance—by poachers and tourist launches. Once again, Dr. Cott urges that tourist launches must be kept away. The FPS is supplying a leaf-let to be given to all tourists explaining why.

More than 300,000 tortoises are exported every year from Morocco to Britain for pets. To find out the effect of this trade on the populations in the wild, the author, aided by a grant from the FPS/WWF Revolving Fund, searched the known tortoise areas in Morocco, weighing and measuring all he found. In his six weeks in the field he found only 23 tortoises. For the country as a whole he estimates numbers to be of the order of five million, a very thin spread over a large area of ground. But the trade may have a more serious effect than just reducing numbers. Because only tortoises of 4–6 inches (under-shell measurement) are wanted, the collectors concentrate on these, which often leaves small mature males to mate with very large mature females. If they are unable to do so it could seriously affect reproduction rates.

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.

The next FPS African tour, planned for January/February 1970, will break new ground, taking in some little-visited reserves in Uganda, notably the beautiful Kidepo Valley National Park in the north, and if possible the newly declared Awash National Park in Ethiopia. This article describes a preliminary tour made by the Hon Secretary and the Editor in February this year to prospect for the tour.