AFRICAN ELEPHANT& RHINO GROUP

NEWSLETTER

INTERNATIONAL UNION

FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE

AND NATURAL RESOURCES

SPECIAL SURVIVAL COMMISSION

NUMBER 2 NOVEMBER 1983

ARCAnimal Research andConservation Centre

PRODUCED WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF ARC,THE CONSERVATION DIVISIO9N OF THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Membership ListCHAIRMAN

Dr. David WesternAnimal Research and Conservation CenterP.O. Box 48177NAIROBIKenya

EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Lucy VigneAnimal Research and Conservation CenterP.O. Box 48177NAIROBIKenya

MEMBERS

D.K. AndereKREMUP.O. Box 47146NAIROBIKenya

Dr. E. BekeleWildlife Conservation OrganisationForestry & Wildlife Conservation Development AuthorityP.O. Box 386ADDIS ABABAEthiopia

Dr. R.H.V. BellSenior Research OfficerDepartment of National Parks and WildlifeKasungu National ParkP.O. Box 43KASUNGUMalawi(Vice Chairman)

P.S.M. BerrySave The Rhino TrustP.O. Box 33MFUWEZambia

Dr. Markus BornerFrankfurt Zoological SocietyP.O. Box 154MWANZATanzania

Dr. Esmond Bradley MartinP.O. Box 15510NAlROBIKenya(Vice Chairman)

Dr. P.M. BrooksChief Research OfficerNatal Parks Game and Fish Preservation BoardP.O. Box 662PIETERMARITZBURG 3200South Africa

J. BusharaChief Game WardenGame DepartmentP.O. Box 4ENTEBBEUganda

Dr. D.H.M. CummingDepartment of National Parks and Wildlife ManagementP.O. Box 8365HARAREZimbabwe(Regional Representative, South Central Africa)

Dr. lain Douglas-HamiltonP.O. Box 54667

NAIROBIKenya

Major Ian GrimwoodP.O .Box45079NAIROBIKenya

Dr. Anthony HaII-MartinSenior Research OfficerKruger National ParkPrivate Bag X402SKUKUZA 1350South Africa(Regional Representative, Southern Africa)

Dr. A.K.K. HillmanPilanesberg Game ReserveP.O. Box 1201, MOGWASEBophuthatswana

Mr. G. KawecheChief Wildlife Research OfficerP.O. Box 1CHILANGAZambia

Dr. Dale LewisP.O. Box 18MFUMEZambia

Hanne LindemannGronholtvej—35B348O FREDENSBORGDenmark

F. LwezaulaDirectorWildlife DivisionMinistry of Natural Resources and TourismP.O. Box 1994DAR-ES-SALAAMTanzania

Dr. Robert MalpasWWF/I UCNc/oAWFP.O. Box 48177NAIROBI, Kenya

Henry C. MingaActing Director of Wildlife ForcesDirectorate of WildlifeRegional Ministry of Regional Affairs and AdministrationEquatorial Region of JubaSouth Sudan

Cynthia MossAnimal Research and Conservation CenterP.O. Box 48177NAIROBIKenya

Dr. J. Ngog-NjeDirectorEcole p our la Formation des Specialistes de Ia FauneBoite Postale 271GAROUACameroun(Regional Representative, Central West Africa)

Dr. Norman Owen-SmithCentre for Resource EcologyUniversity of the WitwatersrandJOHANNESBURG 2001South Africa

Dr. C.A. SpinageProject UPV/78/006c/o UNDPB.P. 575OUAGADOU GOUUpper Volta

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Chairman’ s Report

ELEPHANT AND RHINO SURVEYS AND SOME ACTION

A little over a year ago, IUCN formed the AfricanElephant and Rhino Specialist Group. The great urgencyto do something about the gravely endangered rhinos, theneed to review the status of elephants, rhinos and the tradein their products, requests to collaborate with zoos inpreparing guidelines for captive propagation of rhinos onprivate lands, and a dozen other necessities, haveconfronted AERSG with an awkward dilemma: whatprojects should it take on, and how far should it go to ensurethat projects are implemented?

I can best illustrate the dilemma by describing what weset out to accomplish a year ago, what we learned aboutthe status of rhinos and elephants, and what moved us togreater involvement in the follow-up than we intended.

One of our primary goals was to ensure that theconservation priorities drawn up by the 1981 Wankiemeeting were addressed by the international conservationbodies. The critically endangered northern white rhinotopped the list, yet still too little was known about theremnant populations to be sure if Garamba National Park,the area favoured by the Wankie meeting, was a viableproposition. Because IUCN lacked a project representativeat that stage, AERSG collaborated closely with them indispatching a survey team, headed by Kes Hillman, to seewhat could immediately be done in Garamba. Hillman’srapid survey showed that Garamba’s white rhino populationwas in the low tens, far fewer than we anticipated. AERSGsubsequently assisted in launching a status survey, headedonce again by Hillman, which looked at northern whites inadjacent Sudan and, in conjunction with Marcus Borner ofFrankfurt Zoological Society, conducted a detailed aerialand ground survey of Garamba. The situation in Sudanproved beyond hope. The field evidence showed that theanimals were probably extinct in Shambe, which held 400in the mid 1970s, and that elsewhere the prospects wereequally bleak. In Garamba, aided by IZCN (Institute Zairoispour la Conservation de la Nature). Hillman and Bornershowed that no more than 15 to 20 rhinos remained. Atthe meeting held in Harare during April, AERSG felt thesituation so critical that the safest bet was to move theminto captivity and carefully breed up stocks prior to eventualreintroduction to the wild once conditions improved.Contingency plans were drawn up should thisrecommendation receive the approval of the IZCN andprove feasible. Meanwhile, IUCN, in collaboration withWWF and FZS, went ahead with plans to help IZCNrevamp the poorly equipped park and train personnel. Theproject, not yet underway, will protect this importantecosystem which was given high priority by the Wankiemeeting. Though it will give added protection to the northernwhite rhino, it does not give it the priority managementattention it urgently requires. In discussions with Mankotoma Mbaelele, Scientific and Technical Director of IZCN,he made it clear that Zaire was committed to conservingwhite rhinos in Garamba. Nonetheless, he recognized thefutility of trying to protect rhinos against all odds andsuggested that Zaire would consider a defined end-pointshould field efforts prove hopeless. Provided this guaranteeis made and convincing management proposals are drawnup, AERSG will add support to renewed efforts to raisefunds. Both the urgency and lack of direct international

support for the northern white rhino led to a greaterinvolvement than AERSG intended.

Further participation resulted from yet other activitiesAERSG initiated. In September last year we placed highpriority on conducting new Africa-wide surveys of elephantsand rhinos to update the earlier status reports conductedby lain Douglas Hamilton and Kes Hillman. We alsocommissioned a simultaneous study by the Wildlife TradeMonitoring Unit (WTMU) to update ivory trade statistics sothat we could access recent trends and the significancefor African elephant populations. By April this year ChrisHuxley presented AERSG with a summary report whichcorroborated another independent study undertaken byIan Parker and Esmond Bradley Martin, and reliable fieldinformation. It will still be some time before the results arecomplete, but the various sources of information paint abroad pattern and pin-point critical problem areas for bothelephants and rhinos.

There has been a crescent of heavy poaching extendingfrom Somalia, through northern Kenya, South Sudan, CAR,Chad, northern Zaire, and probably the Congo Republic. Bycontrast the situation in southern Africa has remained stable,or improved in certain areas of South Africa, Botswana,Mozambique and Zimbabwe. East Africa shows a mixedpicture with some improvements for Uganda and Kenyaelephants, and further losses in Tanzania’s rhino population.There is still a great deal of uncertainty over the numerous,fragmented populations of elephants in West Africa.

Once the ivory trade statistics were in, it became clearthat the grave concern expressed by many observers inSudan over the slaughter of elephants and rhinos was morethan justified. Prior to the mid 70s Sudan’s ivory exportswere inconsequential in world terms, but by 1981 theyexceeded a quarter of Africa’s total. Large, heavily armedgangs from northern Sudan regularly headed south andpoached elephants and rhinos, and were also reportedkilling animals well into CAR and Zaire. Much of the ivoryexported by Sudan clearly came from both these countries,and possibly elsewhere.

Ivory exports from Africa declined from nearly a 1000tons in 1976 to 681 tons in 1979 and have held steadysince, despite a falling price. However, far from reflectinga stable offtake of elephants, a sharp drop in mean tuskweights from 10.11 kg. in 1979 to 6.21 kg. in 1982 showsthat increasing numbers of elephants of progressivelyyounger age were being killed. The average number ofelephants represented in the ivory records rose 40%between the late 70s and early 80s, from around 45,000to 65,000. There is every indication that the change resultedalmost entirely from elephants killed in the northerncrescent of their distribution, and that they were herebecoming heavily overexploited. From tentativecalculations Tom Pilgram and I have done (Working paper:“Information about individual elephants from individualtusks”, briefly summarised in this newsletter), this couldmean that the proportion of females killed by poachers inthe region has doubled from 25% to 50%, thus severelyreducing the future reproductive potential of elephants. Thewidespread use of automatic weapons has made poachingfar easier than it ever was, and possible for the hunter toslaughter entire herds where bolt-action rifles previouslynecessitated selective shooting of the largest tuskersbefore the herd fled.

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The sharp decline in mean tusk weights has not pleasedivory carvers in Japan and Hong Kong, which betweenthem account for over 80% of Africa’s exports. Ivorycarvers, who much prefer heavier tusks and pay more perkilo to obtain them, have expressed growing concern atthe flood of small tusks. If both conservationist and ivorycarver are concerned by low tusk weights, who benefits?The answer is probably the poacher and middleman,though we can’t yet be sure. With so many automaticweapons now available, the task of killing elephants iscomparatively easy and requires no special skills. As aresult there are many more people able to make a littlemoney on the side by poaching. With such strongcompetition even the specialised ivory poacher is forcedto make up for falling prices by increasing his killing rate.The rush of new entrants, for whom any money is a bonus,is forcing more and poorer ivory onto the market than itwould normally absorb. As a result, the costs and risksare now so low, and the response to falling prices so mutedand slow, that normal market constraints on over-production are inadequate to curb the killing before it istoo late for many elephant populations.

The scale of slaughter and the widespread concernamongst both conservationists and international ivorytraders alike prompted AERSG to take emergency action.Earlier in the year we circulated the evidence andencouraged the U.S. State Department, amongst others,to urge the Sudanese government to take action. Wefollowed on with an international press campaign whichreceived wide coverage and helped precipitate action.Finally, Sudan made it known that all raw ivory exportswould be banned from December 31st. This will not, ofcourse, stop the poaching overnight. Carved ivory, whichwill not be covered by the ban, provides a loophole forexports. A new lobby is underway urging President Numieryto ban carved ivory exports too. What the ban will do isgive reassurance to wildlife officials in Sudan that thegovernment condemns elephant poaching. We havealready received reports that more arrests are being madeand that more ivory consignments have been impoundedthan in previous years.

These examples give some idea of the dilemma weface in reviewing the status of elephants and rhinos and inidentifying priorities for immediate action. There are otherpressures on AERSG to participate more directly, as forexample, in initiating an ivory council which would providepolicy and technical guidance to the traders associationson how to balance elephant conservation and sustainableivory production. However, the voluntary nature of theGroup made it obvious from the outset that it could notinvolve itself too deeply in conservation action. We sawour role as a purely technical, advisory body, which wouldmonitor the status of elephants and rhinos in Africa andthe threats to their survival, and which would define boththe long-term conservation priorities and urgent areas foraction by IUCN, governments, and other conservationbodies. Despite our intentions to play an impartial, advisoryrole, circumstances have dictated we become increasinglyactive. The urgency of specific issues, the frequent lack ofinternational conservation action on them, and theexpectations that AERSG should fill the vacuum, have allhelped nudge us slightly more centre-stage. To becometoo involved in conservation action would be to lose thevaluable perspective we offer, yet to maintain practicedindifference when the species we champion are threatenedand lack due attention, would be to relinquish our deep

concern for elephants and rhinos. So, while we intend tomaintain our primary role as watchdog and advisor, wemay have to stray a little more than we would like intoareas that require urgent action. Limited time and financeswill ensure our active endeavours concentrate on the fewmost pressing and important issues.

I now want to move on to consider two issues connectedwith the ivory trade that we are giving some thought to.The first concerns carved Ivory. Ivory, whether carved orraw, a whole tusk or a tiny bead, requires a licence to movewithin and between CITES member countries. The purposeof all this paper work is, of course, to conserve the elephantby regulating and monitoring the movement of ivory.Whether CITES legislation is effective depends on anumber of things, including how efficiently permits areissued and scrutinized. On this score there is a real dangerof licensing and customs officials being swamped by thecountless permits that accompany every bead, bangle orbutton. If their task becomes too onerous, effective controlwill collapse. One possibility of overcoming thisbureaucratic nightmare is to focus attention on raw andcarved ivory consignments, and to exempt the individualsmall items a tourist buys on holiday. Large consignments,especially of raw ivory, pose more of a threat to elephantsthan small trinkets, are easier and cheaper to license, andare decidedly simpler for customs officials to watch outfor. We have recently conducted a survey amongst AERSGmembers to find out whether there is any consensus onthe matter. Most who responded felt that small, carvedpieces, should be exempt from licensing. We mayrecommend to CITES that licences should be waived forall carved items under, say, 1 kilogram. If so we will linkthe recommended waiver to calls for tighter controls oncommercial consignments, including all raw ivory, andperhaps all carved consignments over, say, 10 kilograms.Which brings me onto the second and more worrying pointwe are giving some thought to.

I have already mentioned the large ivory shipmentsleaving Sudan and the implications for the elephant in itsnorthern range. Because CITES documents exist for thebulk of ivory moving on the world market, we can hardlyclaim that the convention does conserve elephants bypreventing overhunting within member countries. Theelephant blitz in Sudan, where ivory is legally exported, isa case in point. How then can we tighten up controls? Oneproposal, put forward by the European EnvironmentBureau (EEB), would have the European EconomicCommunity (EEC) ban all ivory imports. In doing so theEEC would almost certainly alienate most African nations,who would view the ban as a denial of rights to naturalresources, and who could claim that Europe was not willingto explore trade and surveillance mechanisms to penalisecountries abusing the spirit of CITES. Furthermore,because more than three quarters of the world’s ivoryimports enter Hong Kong and Japan, a unilateral Europeanban would be totally ineffective in halting Sudanese-stylepoaching. EEB further proposes that export quotas be setfor each country, but because we are uncertain of howmany elephants each country has, how can we set fair oreffective quotas? Presuming CITES member countries arededicated to its principles of conserving threatened andendangered species, how can they still benefiteconomically from elephants, which most African countrieswish to do? Ironically, these countries could both conserveand exploit their elephants far more efficiently; Sudan couldearn far more revenue, perhaps threefold or greater, if its

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mature females it is unlikely that they are growing orshrinking and we are forced to conclude that themeasurement is affected by the recumbent posture of theanimal.

(iv) The teeth of each animal are checked and anattempt is made to identify the molars and describe thenumber of cusps in wear. Whilst this is wildly erratic in themajority of cases, it has however been of interest wherevery old animals have been encountered. We have beenable to measure accurately the length of the molar andnote the time until death. This will be an ongoing studywith the cohort.

(v) Lactational status varies with the population sub-unit. Elephant in the Sengwa Wildlife Research Area arealmost invariably lactating: out of some 200 femalesimmobilised over the past 12 years, only one or two haveever been found without milk. In contrast, perhaps half ofthe adult female elephant in the unprotected communallands of the Sebungwe have been found not lactating. Thissuggests that the unprotected animals are breeding lessfrequently.

Radio-tracking has been used for a number of projectsin the Sebungwe Region. Originally started by David

Zimbabwe Completes Tenth Year of Elephant Radiotracking

Figure 1. Young bull elephant with radiocollar and identification notches cutin collar.

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The Department of National Parks and WildlifeManagement in Zimbabwe has just completed their annualre-collaring programme for elephant in the SebungweRegion. Some 30 elephants whose radio collars were overtwo years old (2 years and 4 months, to be precise) werelocated by radio-tracking using a Supercub, darted from aZimbabwe Airforce Alouette Ill helicopter, and fitted withnew radio collars which will last until 1985. The operationlasted three days, with about 10 elephants being collaredeach day. To save on flying hours, the helicopter is usedonly for firing the tranquillising dart and for transportingthe radio-collar team to the darted animal. The fixed-wingaircraft does all locating work, watches the darted animaluntil the drug takes effect, and checks that the animalrecovers after treatment with the antidote.

All tagged elephant in the Sebungwe are on a two-yearreplacement cycle of radio collars. In 1984 a different cohortof about 30 animals will be due for new collars. This is along term programme with known study animals dating asfar back as 1973. Indeed, the first animal darted in thisrecent operation was a cow named “TV”, who was firstfitted with an experimental collar in 1973, and filmed forthe television programme “Untamed Africa” produced byJohn Hanks. She is currently carrying her fifth radio collar.

Apart from the major issues arising from the differentprojects in the Sebungwe, there is a wealth of interestingminor information which comes from examining theimmobilised animals repeatedly over many years. Forexample:

(i) Animals rapidly replace broken tusks. On 8occasions we have noted that a tusk a foot or more shorterthan the intact tusk will grow to be equal in length to theother tusk within two years.

(ii) Three years ago we began punching the ivory ofeach animal at the lip-line. The punch marks move downthe tusk with growth, and we are now using these as ameans of measuring the rate of growth of the tusks at thelip-line.

(iii) We notice that our measurements of shoulderheight using Law’s technique vary by as much as + 5 cmson successive occasions. As most of the animals are

elephants were selectively hunted, rather than randomlypoached.

We are presently working on three interrelated topicswhich could bring some degree of stability to the ivory trade,and, in turn, to elephant populations. First, we are preparingmodels to show how much more ivory would result fromselective hunting, rather than indiscriminate slaughter, ofa national herd. Bigger animals carry larger tusks and largetusks are worth more per kilo than small, because ivorycarvers prefer them. Selection for older animals, especiallymales, would undoubtedly be the most profitable alternativefor exporting nations.

By legislating minimum, average tusk weights on exportand import consignments of commercial ivory, we couldensure such selectivity and, more importantly, conservethe reproductive capacity of elephant populations. Theminimum weight requirement is a “safety-net”, widely usedin fisheries management, which could prevent

overharvesting, even though we are not sure of how manyelephants there are. Finally, we need some way to definetrade and conservation standardsa Ian Parker’s earliersuggestion of an ivory council involving trade’associationsseem to offer good possibilities, especially if it weremodelled after the International Whaling Commission. Weare now exploring the prospects to see whether an ivorycouncil could realistically, within CITES legislation, andunder the security of responsible conservation bodies,provide the best forum to regulate trade in the interests ofivory traders, carvers and conservationists.

Zimbabwe has an admirable conservation record. Inthis newsletter we highlight three projects to show how itssuccess in wildlife planning and conservation depends ondetailed research and monitoring.

David Western

Cumming in 1968 during a study of warthog, it has beenapplied to lion, kudu, impala, buffalo and black rhino.Experimental work on elephant transmitters began in1971, and by 1977 collars were lasting up to two yearsand giving adequate ranges especially, 10 km ground-to-ground, 30 km with base-station masts, and 50 km plusfrom an aircraft.

From 1975 to 1979 the radio-collars at Sengwa wereused in a detailed study of elephant movements, homerange and group associations. In 1980-82 major cullingoperations were carried out in Sengwa and Chirisa, andthe radio collars were used to monitor the immediateresponse to culling, and are still being used to detect thelong term changes in home range which may arise fromthe population reduction. All the current elephant projectsin the Sebungwe arise from population managementproblems, and are described briefly below:

(i) The Total Tagged Population of Sengwa (Craig,Coulson, Gibson, Martin). The Sengwa WildlifeResearch Area population was estimated at about600 animals prior to the culling operation in 1980.After the removal of some 400 elephants in 1980,local air surveys still showed in excess of 400remaining. Whether this was due to an originalunderestimate, or to immigration during the cull, wasunresolved. However, the strategy used in 1981 wasto tag a number of study herds totaling some 250

animals, and remove all untagged groups. After afurther 400 had been removed the SWRA was left withthe present situation where all herds are tagged withat least one collar, and we now have a cohort suitablefor answering long term questions of populationdynamics and spatial organisation.

(ii) Seasonal Movement in and out of Chirisa SafariArea (Craig, Coulson, Gibson, Martin). As mentionedabove, immigration may have been a factor confusingthe outcome of the Sengwa population reduction. In1981 six elephant herds were tagged inside theboundary of Chirisa Safari Area, and six in thesurrounding Gokwe Communal Land, with a view tomonitoring movement in and out of the protected area.This project has been running for two years, and istending to show that none of the Chirisa herds everleave the Safari Area, while the herds in the Communallands seldom seek sanctuary in Chirisa.

(iii) Home ranges in Chizarira National Park (Mackie).As a logical extension to the work in SWRA and Chirisa,8 cow herds were tagged in the eastern and southernparts of Chizarira in 1981 to establish home ranges.This population appears to be more or less discrete,and the project will be allowed to wind down in 1983.

(iv) Seasonal movement in and out of Matusadona

Figure 2. Fitting a radiocollar to an elephant. Author in left foreground.

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highlands of the Park could possibly damage the resource,limiting the availability of elephant in the communal land.Worse perhaps, management action could create avacuum into which elephant would continue to move,without solving the habitat problems in the Park andsimultaneously draining the communal land of a valuableresource.

The choice of management options clearly dependedon understanding better the nature of seasonal movementin and out of Matusadona. With this objective in mind,twelve elephant cows were radio collared in June 1982. APiper Super Club and an Airforce of Zimbabwe Alouette Illhelicopter were used to locate and immobilise elephantcows, preferably herd matriarchs in family units. Each cowwas fitted with a collar supporting a radio transmitterencased in glass fibre, built by R.B. Martin at the SengwaWildlife Research Institute. Six elephants were collared inthe Matusadona escarpment and highlands and six to thesouth and west of the Park’s southern boundary. Sincethe collaring operation there have been regular trackingflights using a Super Cub, usually at two-weekly intervals.Each collared elephant, with its own transmitter frequency,is located using a receiver carried in the aircraft, the localitymarked on a map and notes made on herd size andstructure. Of the twelve elephant originally collared, elevenhave been regularly located. One elephant was “lost”shortly after collaring, probably due to transmitter failure,so that only three fixes on its movement were obtained. Asecond elephant was accidentally shot by a safari operator,but the collar was replaced shortly afterwards on anotherelephant. Of a possible total 168 resightings (14 trackingflights x 12 elephants) 125 resightings have been made, asuccess rate of 74%.

Seasonal Movement of Elephant in and around MatusadonaNational Park, Kariba

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National Park (Taylor). This project was started in1981

Matusadona National Park on the southern shores ofLake Kariba is one of a number of protected wildlife areasset amidst communal land in the northern Sebungwe regionof Zimbabwe. In terms of the Park policy which seeks,inter alla, to conserve representative woodland habitats, ithas been necessary to manage the elephant populationin Matusadona. Management action thus far, achievedlargely through culling, has been confined mainly to thevalley area of the Park, where physical barriers, namelyLake Kariba and the Zambezi escarpment, limit elephantmovement and dispersal. In the highlands of the Park,above the escarpment, there are no barriers to movementsouthward (Fig. 1). Nevertheless elephant destruction ofwoodland habitats in the highlands, compounded by theeffects of uncontrolled wild fires, requires that some formof management action be taken.

It had been apparent for some time that the elephantpopu0lation in the Matusadona highlands was notnecessarily resident but that elephant moved in and outseasonally. This was evident from the seasonal distributiondata of elephant in the northern Sebungwe, gatheredduring aerial surveys. The very large discrepancy in wetand dry season elephant numbers in the highlandsconfirmed that there was a wet season dispersal. However,little was known about the nature of this dispersal.Moreover, elephant are a valuable resource in thesurrounding communal land where both financial andprotein benefits accrue to the local community throughcommercial safari hunting and an annual offtake of crop-raiding elephant. Large scale culling operations within the

on similar basis to (ii) above, and is covered in a separatearticle by Russell Taylor in this newsletter.

Elsewhere in Zimbabwe, radio-tracking of elephant isbeing used in the following projects:

(i) Hwange National Park: Some 30 odd collars are beingused to examine the intensity of habitat occupationaround artificial watering points, and movement to andfrom Botswana on the western boundary of the Park.(Conybeare, Monks)

(ii) Gona Re Zhou National Park: A study of male elephant(10 collars) was initiated in 1982 to examine the roleof elephant carrying large ivory versus large-bodiedmales and other males in breeding success. (Sharpe)

(iii) Mana Pools National Park: 12 collars are being usedto monitor movements of animals from the ZambesiValley flood plain to the Escarpment. This is amanagement study arising from the need to identifythe sub-populations causing woodland damage in theEscarpment area. So far the study has shown little

traffic between the Zambesi River and the high ground,leading us to believe that separate populations occupythe two habitats. (Dunham)

Other large mammals being studied are buffalo in theZambesi Valley (12 collars-Swanepoel), and black rhinoin the Gona Re Zhou (5 collars-Sharpe). In total about140 animals are being tracked in Zimbabwe with the largestgroup being the Sebungwe elephant (70 collars). This ismade possible by advanced technology frequencysynthesised receivers with 128 channels. These receiversare specially adapted for radio tracking, possessing aninput sensitivity ten times higher than most competingequipment, and front-end attenuation for rangedetermination.

Recently we have supplied equipment outsideZimbabwe for elephant and rhino studies in the LuangwaValley, Zambia (Dale Lewis and Nigel Leader Williams),elephant in the Kasungu National Park, Malawi (HugoJachmann, Richard Bell) and cattle in Botswana (Nick Abel,ILCA).

R.B. MartinNational Parks & Wildlife Management

Zimbabwe

Figure 4 shows the wet and dry season sightings forfour of the twelve elephants and illustrates the range ofresults that have been obtained to date. These can bebriefly summarised as follows:

1. Three groupings are discernible:(i) Northern (escarpment) elephant which do not move

out of the Park at all, e.g. Odzi. There are a total offour such elephant with collars.

(ii) Southern (highlands) elephant which move both inand out of the Park e.g. Rita, of which there areagain four animals with collars.

(iii) Communal land elephant which appear to live andmove entirely outside the Park, namely Spider andSuzanne. If the elephant “lost” early in the projectis included, the four remaining collared elephantconstitute this group.

2. All elephants move greater distances during the wetseason in comparison to their movement in the dryseason. This would also suggest that wet seasonranges are larger than the dry season range; however,the data are still inadequate for reliable home rangemeasurements.

3. Elephant in the communal land, including some of thosethat spend a portion of their time in the Park, appear to

have much larger ranges than do those who are alwaysin the Park. Compare Odzi with Rita and Suzanne.

4. Some elephants have distinctly separate wet and dryseason ranges, e.g. Rita and Spider. These elephantsoccupy the highlands in and adjacent to Matusadonaduring the dry season, moving to the lower lying areasduring the rains.

5. Apart from a brief excursion to the Matusadonalakeshore by Odzi during the wet season, there hasbeen no other movement northwards over the Zambeziescarpment into the valley. Most movement appearsto take place in a south-west/north-east orientationwhich is also the geo-physical orientation of the landsurface.

6. Elephant that live in both the Park and communal land,as well as just communal land elephant, are associatedwith crop raiding. Rita was in the vicinity of Negande inthe west at a time when this village was being subjectedto crop raiding. Magda (not illustrated), who wascollared in the Park, had one of her colleagues shotdead next to her on control work following a crop-raidingforay at Sainpakaruma to the south of Matusadona. Ifound Magda and her group of 13 two days later nomore than four kilometres away from the scene of theincident. Although she could easily have fled to thesafety of the Park she had not done so. There were

Figure 3

Fig. 4. Wet and dry season sightings of four radio-collaredelephant In and around Matusadona National Park, June1982 ––May 1983. (•) Wet and (o) dry season sightings;(–x–) game fence; (–) Park boundary; (600) altitude, masl; ( ) rivers and lakeshore.

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Figure 5. Southern White Rhino.

Rhino Rescue in Southern Zimbabwe

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Between 30 and 40 Southern white rhino are beingcaptured in southern Zimbabwe to rescue them from theworst drought to hit the region in living memory.

The last indigenous Zimbabwean white rhino was shotby hunters earlier in the century, and the country’s currentpopulation of around 200 animals has been redevelopedfrom stock supplied by the Natal Parks Board.

Most of these animals are located in National Parkssuch as Hwange, and in smaller “Recreational Parks”including Lake Mcllwaine, close to Harare, and theMatopos outside Bulawayo. These areas have escapedthe worst of the drought; but two separate populations onprivately held ranches in the south of the country – thehardest-hit region would almost certainly have died by

also a further 60 elephants nearby which may havebeen indicative of some form of protective aggregation.

7. The overall group size of elephant in the communalland is larger than in the Park, while those elephantsassociated with both areas have an intermediategroup size. However, there is considerable variation.For example Spider has been consistently associatedwith ten other elephants during the dry season in thehighlands on the southern boundary of Matusadona,but her group size increased threefold during the wetseason when she moved further south into thecommunal land.

The radio tracking results so far have helped to establishthat some elephants are resident in the Park, certainly inthe northern escarpment, but that others in the highlandsmove in and out seasonally. Nearly all movement takesplace to the south and west and not northwards over theescarpment. Other elephants adjacent to the Park appearto be permanent residents in the communal land. However,there is considerable interaction between these elephantsand those that move in and out of Matusadona. Obviously

more information is still required, particularly since the pasttwo rainy seasons in and around Matusadona have beenrather dry and this may have confounded the resultssomewhat. Nevertheless the management options arebecoming clearer. If culling is to take place then it shouldbe limited to the northern escarpment area. In seeking toprotect the woodlands of the southern highlands it may bepreferable to disrupt the seasonal movement of elephantinto the Park. This can be achieved through selectivehunting or aerial harassment of elephant along the southernand western Park boundaries. Elephant alive outside thePark are preferable to their being killed in the Park. Indeedthe disruptive option has already been implemented witha certain measure of success. Finally it is perhapsimportant to state that appropriate fire management actionis also being taken.

R.D. TaylorDept. National Parks & Wildlife Management,

Zimbabwet

It is suggested that the priority actions are:

1. Conservation action first and foremost for the rhinosin Garamba in the context of re-development offunctional conservation in the Park and of otheraspects of the ecosystem, with close monitoring onthe progress of such, and contingency plans. (seeRobert Malpas’ article)

2. The’‘intermediate’ aid to Shambe and further aid toanti-poaching and/or rhino capture in Sudan as seenfit.

3. Negotiation of the possibility of catching some rhinosin Sudan for temporary improved protection.

4. Negotiation of the possibilities of forming a secondbreeding nucleus by amalgamating singletons andothers with no future.

5. Investigation of the situation in C.A.R.6. Consideration of aid for the group at Dvur Kralove if

required.

AERSG are still concerned that there be guaranteed plansfor captive breeding should in situ conservation efforts fail.

Reports Confirm Northern White Rhino Close to Extinction

10

The final reports are now in and as previously indicatedby Kes Hillman, very few Northern White rhinos remainnow in the wild. The total world population is probably lessthan 100, possibly considerably less. At least 13-20,possibly more are at Garamba National Park in Zaire. Oneor 2 remain at Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda.

In Southern Sudan, some almost certainly still remainin the Shambe area, particularly in the north west, but at avery low density. There may be some in Southern NationalPark, but again at a very low density and severelythreatened by next season’s poaching. A few individualsprobably still remain in the Meshra area, but with little orno future possibilities there.

There may still be a population, possibly even areasonable one, in the Golongossa hunting reserve inwestern C.A.R., but this must be further investigated.

There may well be other relict populations scatteredaround, but we know of nothing substantial. There couldespecially be further hopes in C.A.R., but none of thesecountries are easy places to search for or find rhinos. Thereare believed to be 17 in captivity, the largest group beingat Dvur Kralove in Czechoslovakia.

the end of the 1983 dry season.One of the threatened rhino populations, first thought

to number 25 animals, was located on the Humani andLone Star ranches in the south-eastern corner of thecountry, close to the Gonarezhou National Park. Whilebrowsers such as kudu and eland will probably survive,thousands of grazers including zebra, wildebeest andimpala and possibly some of the white rhino have alreadydied.

When it became apparent, early in 1983, that SouthernZimbabwe was facing a severe wildlife crisis, plans for thecapture of several valuable species were made by theZimbabwean Department of National Parks in conjunctionwith the ranches involved.

The Department and the ranches targeted sableantelope, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest, and the remainingwhite rhino for capture and captive feeding until they canbe re-released hopefully by next March.

Two National Parks capture teams moved into the areain June. While one team concentrated on the threatenedantelopes, the other successfully located and caught 17white rhino, using darts loaded with M99 and administeringthe 50-50 antidote after the animals had been transportedto the pens on Lone Star ranch. Six have since died froma combination of stress and extreme poverty. Theremaining 11 have adjusted to a diet of sugarcane topssupplied by neighbouring sugar estates. While the second

team continue with the antelope capture, the rhino unit,led by the Department’s Management Unit Warden ClemCoetsee, moved a couple of hundred miles west toDoddieburn, a former ranch that is now State Land.

Here, a further 22 white rhino are thought to bethreatened by the drought and are being captured andpenned. Three are destined for Algeria, together with anumber of cheetah. Five will be moved on to other rancheswhere grazing is still available; and the rest will be releasedinto the 5200-square-mile Hwange National Park.

The rescue operations have depended heavily on publicsupport. The ranches in the south-east launched a “Saveour Sable” fund which has so far raised some Z$15,000 topay for the captive feeding of the antelopes and white rhino;and the Bulawayo branch of the Wildlife Society has beeninstrumental in obtaining crates, feed and other essentialitems to help with the capture on the Doddieburn ranch.Possible further developments include the establishmentof a nationwide fund to help finance any future rescueoperations that may be needed. Zimbabwe experiences aten-year drought cycle and the situation could welldeteriorate further next year. Local conservationistagencies are now seeking around Z$150,000 to financethe capture and transport equipment that may be neededto avert a full-scale wildlife disaster if the 1983-84 rainsfail to materialise.

Dick Pitman

Recent reports from the field present a mixed pictureof elephant status:- A massacre of elephants has been reported in the

Sudan, with an estimated 12,000 killed per year.- An aerial survey in Garamba National Park, Zaire, has

shown that the elephant population has dropped by64% in six years.

- Zimbabwe’s national elephant estimate has increasedfrom around 30,000 to 40,000 and a record cull isplanned to control the elephants’ population growth,and bring money to the people.

- Elephant poaching has broken out in the KrugerNational Park and 137 elephants have been shot bypoachers armed with Kalashnikov rifles, in a formerlyinviolate sanctuary.

- Ranchers have complained of too many elephants inthe Laikipia ranching area in Kenya. Numbers haveswelled immensely in the last 10 years, although inthe country at large the national elephant populationfell by more than half between 1970 and 1977.In Ruaha National Park, Tanzania, elephants haveincreased at a rate of 12% per annum from 1973 to1977 and pose a danger to the baobab trees.

With reports coming in like this, the general public maybe forgiven for feeling a little confused about the realelephant situation in Africa today, Can elephants beoverpopulated, and at the same time seriously endangeredby poaching? Experts disagree among themselves as tothe importance of the ivory trade versus the effects ofhuman population growth.

Because of the danger of polarization of views, there isa need for an overview. Now as more reports come in,and in order to stimulate thought and discussion, I haveplotted an index of some of the principal factors affectingelephants, showing the rates of change. These factorsinclude the price of ivory, world inflation, human populationgrowth, and two measures of the arms race: arms importsand men in the armed forces. The by-product of the armsrace is poachers armed with automatic weapons.

The ivory price index from 1960 to 1978 in Figure 6 isderived from ivory prices of the leading importing countries,mainly Japan and Hong Kong. The inflation index is forthe GDP of the OECD 24 leading industrialized nationsincluding most large ivory importers, and is derived fromfigures supplied by Morgan Grenfell Bank. Data on thearms race (Figure 7) have been summarised in East Africafrom US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency statistics.

It is argued here that the elephant situation in the sixtieswas radically altered by two main factors: an increase ithe price of ivory on the world market, itself a by-product ofinflation; and an increase in the availability of automaticweapons in the hands of poachers, a by-product of thearms race, wars and civil strife. East Africa is used as anexample here, but the problem is continent wide.

THE 1960’s SCENARIOIn the 1960’s, the main problem of elephants in East

Africa was one of overcrowding within the National Parks,with woodland destruction. Elephant densities were thought

to have increased through the alienation of their range asan expanding human population put more land undercultivation around the protected areas. Classic exampleswere the Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda andthe Tsavo National Park in Kenya, but many moreabounded. In the sixties, the ivory price kept broadly inline with the rate of inflation for the first eight years. Therewas only a slight rise in the ivory price from 1960 to 1966,at which point it exceeded inflation by a factor of 1.27, butthen dropped back to match inflation by 1968. The armsrace had hardly begun.

THE 1970’s SCENARIOIn the 1970’s the scenario for elephants changed

dramatically. The ivory price increased, and Africancountries entered an explosive arms race, accompaniedby civil disturbances, wars, and guerilla campaigns. Theimportance of these latter aspects on elephant populationdynamics has perhaps been hitherto u underestimated.

Elephants Hit by African Arms RaceRecent Factors Affecting Elephant Populations

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Figure 6

Ivory priceFrom 1969 to 1978 the ivory price climbed rapidly from

$ 5.77 to $ 74.42, at which point it exceeded inflation by afactor of 5.9. Since then it has dropped to $ 52.8 in 1982,but the ivory price index in 1982 still exceeded the inflationindex, by a factor of 3.5.

It follows that the price incentives to obtain and sellivory throughout the seventies up to the present haveincreased by a similar factor, especially in African countrieswith an acute shortage of foreign exchange and rapidinflation (Kenya 11%, Zaire 30%, Uganda 28%). Of all thefactors considered here the ivory price has increased themost.

The Arms RaceIn the decade 1971-1980 Africa registered the largest

average annual rate of increase in arms imports ascompared to the other regions of the world; a low volumeof $ 500 million in 1971 contrasts with a volume of $ 4.5billion in arms imports in 1980. Military expenditure in Africaduring the same period increased on average at a rate of6.66% annually, in real terms adjusted for inflation.Although these increases do not refer directly to automaticrifles there is no doubt that these rifles were part of themodernization process and multiplied accordingly.

In Eastern Africa, Somalia armed in the early 70’s inpreparation for the Ogaden war, and the Ethiopians armedin response. Uganda armed at the same time under Amin, Tanzania armed in response, and Kenya followed suit.Sudan also armed in response to Libyan interference.

Armed forces in the region increased as follows:

1971 1980Ethiopia 45,000 240,000Kenya 7,000 16,000Somalia 20,000 54,000Sudan 35,000 68,000Tanzania 20,000 57,000Uganda 14,000 6,000

141,000 441,000

It would be reasonable to assume that the number ofautomatic rifles is closely related to the number ofpersonnel in the armed services. During the decade therehas been a more than threefold increase in the number ofmen serving in the armed forces in the region.

The next step to explain is how the arms get into thehands of poachers. In some countries, for example Ugandaand Sudan, elements of the military themselves were themain poachers, whom the lightly armed and outnumberedPark Rangers were powerless to oppose. In others,weapons were lost, stolen, taken from defeated soldiers,looted from armouries, issued to people’s militias,channelled secretly to guerilla movements, or simply tradedby soldiers for money or goods.

Proliferation was also increased by wars and civil strife.For example as Amin’s power weakened, the Mathenikoclan of the Karamajong tribe attacked and overwhelmedthe police barracks at Moroto. In this raid they looted thearmoury and carried off 12,500 automatic rifles, 1.5 millionrounds of ammunition, and numerous rocket propelledgrenades and other munitions. The Jieh clan alsoparticipated in this haul.

The Matheniko and the Jieh clans then attacked otherclans and accumulated stolen cattle. The market for thesecattle and the loose guns spread, When one tribe acquirednew weapons the others were under pressure to keep upor suffer defeat So a chain reaction of weapon acquisitionwas set off. From the Karamajong in Uganda the Toposaacquired rifles and took them to Sudan, the Turkanabrought rifles to Kenya. The Pokot acquired them too asthey were traded through the tribes. These nomadicpeoples, transferred overnight from spears, bows andarrows to automatic weapons.

In 1979 retreating troops of Amin were eager toabandon their weapons and uniforms in order to avoidcapture and execution. Where they could they sold theirguns to villagers. The result was that the price of anautomatic rifle dropped to a very low level. Their retreatback to West Nile Province, from where most of them came,lay through the Murchison Falls National Park. Hundredsof rifles came into the hands of local people in that area,and they began to poach.

Further in the east of the region a similar scenariounfolded. In the sixties and seventies the Somalis built uptheir army with the policy of extending their boundaries toinclude the Somali communities living in Ethiopia, FrenchSomaliland and Northern Kenya. Somali “shifta” wereresponsible from 1970 to 1975 for reducing elephantpopulations along the Tana River and in the Lamu Garissaregion of Kenya.

In the 1977 Ogaden war, a trail developed acrossNorthern Kenya in the Mandera area, used by Somaliinsurgents on their way to and from the Ogaden. Inevitablysome of these guerillas, who were probably not welldisciplined, deserted or sold or lent their arms to others.The spin-off was that more loose guns wound up in thehands of the nomads.

It was not until this point that elephant poaching inSomalia itself got under way. Formerly, it had been reportedthat poaching had been virtually eliminated in the country.Then, Hassan Sheikh Omar of the Wildlife Department,wrote that elephant poaching had suddenly increased withthe easy availability of automatic weapons, associated withthe war between the Western Somalia Liberation Frontand Ethiopia. In the five years previous to 1981, heestimated that over one half of the elephants of the countryhad been killed, and that in many areas this proportionhad been surpassed. There were places, he said, whereonly one tenth of the elephants recently present nowsurvived, and where the anti-poaching unit had foundgroups of up to 80 dead elephants lying where they hadbeen fired upon.

To the south of the region, in Tanzania, loose guns havealso increased. I found a group of 8 dead elephants in theTarangire National Park on an aerial survey in 1977,indicating that automatic weapons had probably been usedto kill them. In 1980 a survey made in the Arusha regionrevealed large areas where the only elephants to be seenwere dead. In 1981 Tanzanian troops returned fromUganda, a country where the only law in force was therule of the gun. When they came home some soldiersbrought problems of ill discipline, of looting civilians, andof “losing” guns. Recently, unquantitative reports ofwidespread elephant killing have come from SouthernTanzania, but await confirmation by aerial survey. The nextTanzanian elephant population which arc candidates forcollapse arc those living in proximity to poachers armedwith automatic rifles.

At the end of the Sudanese civil war in 1972 many ofthe Southern Sudanese “Anyanya” guerillas were recruitedinto the army where they were issued with automaticweapons. With the recent civil disturbances in Sudan ananarchical situation exists in which elements of the army,government officials, ex “Anyanyas”, and gangs of well-armed horse mounted Arabs have been involved in a freefor all, which appears to have decimated every elephantpopulation living in the south.

Although the examples have dealt with the East Africanregion the problem is general within the elephant ranges

Figure 7

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of Africa. Automatic rifles have been used to poachelephants in many other national parks: in Niokola Kobain Senegal, in Zakouma in Chad, in Garamba in Zaire, inBamangui-Bangoran in CAR, in the Luangwa Valley inZambia, in Wankie in Zimbabwe, in Chobe in Botswanaand in the Kruger in South Africa, to name just a few.

Human Population IncreaseHuman population increase presents the most

important long-term issue, through the expansion ofagriculture or other intensive land management practicesinto the elephant range. This may be more rapid thanpopulation increase per se. The trend towards urbanizationslows down the rate of human increase in the rural areaswhere the elephant’s range is found, but nevertheless isexpected to increase by 50% by the year 2000, and willinevitably compete with elephants for space. The rate ofincrease selected for the graph in Figure 7 is 4%, currentlyachieved by Kenya, with the fastest growth rate.

Recent elephant decreases, however, have not takenplace in areas of high human population density, but in therural areas of low human population density. Current levelsof ivory production cannot therefore be ascribed to theimmediate effects of the human population increase, suchas competition for land or resources.

The lowest point was reached in all three national Parksin 1980, and recorded in the WWF Aerial Survey, atapproximately one tenth of the 1971 level. Since then,through equipping the rangers with firepower to match thatof the poachers and supporting them with an adequateaid programme, the elephant situation has stabilized. Largenumbers of automatic rifles continue to be recovered frompoachers, especially around the Murchison Falls NationalPark.

Ruaha is an example of an elephant build up within apark by those factors outlined in the scenario for the 1960’s.Southern Tanzania’s elephants remained relativelyunaffected by the effect of ivory poaching at least until themid 1970’s. Within the Ruaha National Park they built upby 8% per year between 1973 and the 1977 censuses.Barnes attributes this to external human pressures as wellas “natural increase”, Whether Ruaha has continued toremain immune to the general trend caused by the ivorytrade can be resolved by further monitoring. Qualitativereports suggest that there has been a massive increasein elephant poaching in recent years.

Census data of scientific validity are few and farbetween, and often have followed in the wake of whathave been called “unconfirmed reports and speculation”’,For example in 1973 hunters alleged massive decreasesin the northern districts of Kenya. These were notconfirmed by aerial survey until 1977; in 1979 numerousallegations were made of “‘elephant massacres” in thenorth of Zaire, not confirmed until Borner and Hillman madean aerial survey in Garamba in 1983 and found a 64%decrease; in Sudan elephant massacres were reported inthe period 1980 to 1982, and these still have not beenconfirmed widely apart from one survey in Shambe, wherehigh carcass ratios indicated heavy elephant mortality. Theprotected areas are usually the last to suffer declines.When heavy poaching begins elephant numbers usuallyincrease within the National Parks, as in Ruaha. By thetime a collapse is recorded within a park the worst hasalready happened long ago in the rest of the country.

CONCLUS IONSIn our overview of the factors affecting elephants we

can consider their relative rates of change. The ivory pricehas increased twelve times between 1960 and 1982,whereas inflation has only increased by 3.5. In the decadeof 1971 to 1980 arms imports in the East African regionincreased by 9 times and armed forces by 3 times, whereashuman population only increased by 50% in the countryof most rapid growth, Kenya.

From the Tsavo and Uganda Parks examples, we knowthat the apparently secure state, where elephants arc saidto be overpopulated, is often fragile and illusory. In theface of automatic weapons, and with the high incentivesprovided by the high ivory price, a population of “safe”elephants can be brought to the edge of extinction withina few years.

The elephant situation in Africa as a whole contains afew islands of protected elephant populations where“overcrowding” may still be a problem. Otherwise,elephants, like many people in Africa, face an unstableand turbulent future.

I. Douglas-Hamilton

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Figure 8

ELEPHANT TRENDSI have selected only three elephant populations for the

graph in Figure & those of the combined Uganda NationalParks, and of Ruaha and Garamba National Parks.

The effects of automatic weapons on Uganda’selephants is probably the best documented case historyof a catastrophic population collapse caused solely bypoaching for ivory. Ironically it was here that it was firstdemonstrated in the mid sixties by culling teams that masskilling of elephants could be safely and efficientlyaccomplished using standard NATO automatic weapons.Likewise for the poachers, automatic weapons with theirhigh rate of fire offered the possibility of more effectivemass killing. Recent trends have been summarized in theprevious newsletter, and have been documented from 1973to 1976 in the scientific papers of Eltringham and Malpas.

Mali and Mauritania boast the continent’s most north-westerly elephant populations, which survive as tinyremnants in marginal habitats bordering the Sahara. Ofthese, by far the largest (and the only one with any long-term survival prospects) is the population of about 600that, apart from a brief spell in Upper Volta during the rainyseason, ranges most of the year in an area of Mali knownas the Gourma (see map). Their annual movements arebelieved by some observers to approach 800 km, which ifsubstantiated would be easily the longest elephantmigration recorded. The Gourma elephants are thus ofconsiderable scientific interest, and their study is of valueto elephant conservation and management elsewhere inAfrica.

In 1959 the Government of Mali declared a 12,000 km2

Elephant Reserve in the Gourma. The only relevantmanagement prescription was the banning of all elephanthunting which was allowed elsewhere on licence at thetime. Since Mali’s total hunting ban of 1978, however, themanagement status of the reserve had become no differentto its surrounds. Subsequently, international concern forthe Gourma elephants has been expressed. For example,in 1980 an IUCN/ UNEP Technical Meeting issued aresolution calling on the Government of Mali to protect theGourma elephants. In 1981, political and governmentaction in relation to the Gourma elephants was one of thehighest priority recommendations of the Wankie meetingof the IUCN African Elephant and Rhino Specialist Groups.

Although poaching of Gourma elephants by urbanMaliens used to be of concern, poaching is not currentlybelieved to pose a significant threat, although some,reputedly organised out of Upper Volta, does occur andthe animals are rumoured to be relatively hard hit duringtheir sojourn in that country. According to an Ouagadougou-based FAO wildlife expert, however, elephant poaching inUpper Volta is negligible. Nevertheless, it is generallyagreed that given present levels of law-enforcementcapability, and the current state of the ivory market in termsof supply and demand, poaching of the Gourma elephantswill become increasingly serious within Mali as access tothe area improves, although there is little evidence of thisyet. At present the extremely limited availability in theGourma of late dry season surface water poses a threat,which may have accounted for up to 40 deaths this year.In the long-term however, plans to develop greatly thearea’s livestock potential pose the most serious threats tothe Gourma elephants.

The elephants currently share their 33,000 km2 rangewith some 379,000 cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys andcamels, as well as over 100,000 Tamasheq (Taureg) andPheul (Fulani) pastoralists. The area is characterised by asingle peak monsoonal rainfall regime in which a shortsummer rainy season (June to September) is sharplycontrasted with a long dry season. Mean annual rainfall inthe elephant range varies from about 550 mm in the southto 300 mm in the north. The herbaceous and woodycomponents of the vegetation are dominated by annualgrasses and deciduous species (from genera such asCombretum and Acacia respectively). For much of the yearelephants are apparently heavily dependent on browse.There are no permanent rivers in the elephant range andfor several years now some shallow lakes associated withthe Niger’s seasonal inundation zone have remained dry.

Thus, as the dry season progresses the elephants fallback on the few remaining sources of surface water ofwhich there will be only one or two in a bad year.

Although livestock and men have access to wells andbore-holes also, these too arc few in number, and it isgenerally agreed that the overall scarcity of dry seasonwater is responsible for the grazing potential of the Gourmabeing greatly under-utilized. The development of theGourma as an important livestock range through provisionof more and better distributed dry season water has,therefore, been a long-cherished ideal of the governmentand with help from the World Bank and others this, andthe consequent transformation of the area’s ecology, isabout to be realized.

One of the traditionally important elephant concentrationareas in times of acute water shortage is a water holeknown as Banzena. By March 1983, Banzena was the onlysource of surface water in the western Gourma and hostedseveral hundred elephants. In mid-April an early rain fellto the east and north of Banzena, causing the elephantsto disperse. Evidently the rains were ineffective and theelephants found little water in the dispersal area, save thatwhich could be taken from small wells dug by the localpeople in dried-up lake beds. The competition betweenman and elephant at such sites was considerable —manywells were destroyed, elephants got stuck in wells wheresome died, and at least one man was killed by an elephant.Elephants were reported dying of thirst over a large area.By early May, Banzena held only mud and dead and dyingelephants.

On 13th May 1983, UNEP received an urgent telex fromthe Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperationin Mali outlining the situation, which was expected toworsen during June, and appealing for assistance. Inresponse I was sent to Mali from 6th to 17th July 1983, inorder to give a full report to UNEP on the situation and torecommend appropriate action to thc Government.

I concluded that despite an apparent excess of supplyover demand in the gross primary production of theecosystem, the size of the elephant population may beclose to its effective elephant carrying capacity. While thereis evidence that the animals arc well adapted to theconstraints of the ecosystem, it is doubtful they could adaptvery much further. The scarcity of dry season surface water,and the seasonal overexploitation of its immediatesurrounds, are probably the underlying factors regulatingthe elephant population, not infrequently through themedium of drought related mortality. If present conditionspersist or deteriorate, the vulnerability of the population toextinction will increase yearly.

In the short-term, proposed water development in theGourma should sharply reduce the incidence of droughtrelated mortality. In the long-term however, if there is nocorresponding control in livestock numbers, the situationcould soon revert once more, though with considerablyless room for elephants. Developments affecting thetraditional dry season concentration areas and crisis refugiaof the elephants are especially significant. Any permanentdisplacement from such habitats would have an extremelyadverse impace on the elephants.

Mali’s Elephants Suffer in Drought

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At a time when the black rhinoceros is under extremepressure and declining rapidly over much of its range inAfrica, t is encouraging to know that in Natal the reversesituation is found. This Province, lying along the north-eastern seaboard of South Africa, contains the activenucleus of the black rhinoceros population south of theLimpopo River. Since 1962, the Natal Parks, Game andFish Preservation Board has provided rhinos from certainof the Zulu land reserves for re-introduction into otherconservation areas within the former range of the species.

The importance of Natal’s rhino was highlighted byPeter Hitchins in 1975 by his statement that ot the 439black rhinos in the Republic 400 occurred in Natal. Whilenot very significant at that time in terms of the totalpopulation in Africa, the continuing decline of the specieselsewhere has focussed attention on this population andits role in providing excess animals for conservation.

The current population in Natal stands at about 420,distributed between the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi (±300), Mkuzi(±60) and Ndumu Game Reserves (±30), and Itala (±25)and Weenen Nature Reserves (4). Apart from the newly-

established populations in Itala and Weenen, the remainderhave remained fairly stable over the last 10 to 15 years.

The three major Zululand Reserves of Hluhluwe-Umfolozi, Mkuzi and Ndumu have provided the individualsfor translocation over the years. Most have come fromHluhluweUmfolozi, and t is here that the black rhinopopulation has been most intensively studied.

A game count in 1961 produced a population estimateof 300 for Hluhluwe, with densities ranging from 0.6 to 1.7rhinos/km2. The same year a population crash occurred inthe north-eastern area of the reserve with 46 animals dyingover a four month period. These events were reported byPeter Hitchins who also found that numbers continued todecline in Hluhluwe during the dry cycle of the late 1960s,so that by 1972 the estimate was 199. Over the sameperiod numbers increased to about 129 in Umfolozi. Theoverall density in 1972 of 0.36 rhinos/km2 for Hluhluwe-Umfolozi was still far higher than found elsewhere in Africa.e.g. Masai Mara Game Reserve 0.1/km2, Olduvai Gorge0.002/km 2 and Ngorongoro Crater 0.004/km 2. Theresponse of the population over this period and the high

Figure 9. Map of Mali showing the Gourma (striped area) and the NationalPark: La B ouck de B aoule (stippled area).

Unless appropriate integrated management of theelephant range is carried out, the future of the species inthe Gourma looks extremely bleak. The long-termobjectives of such management would be to maintain orincrease the existing elephant population, whilesimultaneously increasing existing levels of livestockproductivity in a sustainable manner. The approach canbe justified on grounds of the local and internationalimportance of the elephants, development of the nation’sprotected areas, tourism, employment, restoration ofwildlife, sustainable livestock production, and sensitizationof the Government and the public to conservation.

I recommend that the existing Elephant Reserve beredefined as a multiple use area (IUCN category 3)covering the majority of the Gourma elephant range andthat within this, one or more sanctuaries (IUCN category4) be established in critical habitats. Thus the elephantrange can be divided into zones subject to varyingintensities of management, each of which can be givenlegal definition under the provisions of existing legislation.An associated planning programme, culminating in awritten management plan, is desirable.

Pending such a programme, two measures are urgentlyneeded. The first is control (by the Direction Nationale desEaux et Forets (DNEF) over what is probably the areamost critical to elephants, namely Banzena water hole andits surrounds. Here, a very productive bore-hole which wasrecently sunk threatens elephant access in the future. Thesecond is the deployment of DNEF agents throughout theelephant range to enforce the law.

Rob Oliver

South Africa Celebrates Rhino Successes

Black Rhinos in Natal and South Africa

15

Tusk Measurements Provide Insight into Elephant PopulationDynamics

population density suggested that the carrying capacityhad been reached, at least in Hluhluwe, and this promptedthe translocation of 20 black rhinos to Kruger National Parkin 1971.

No further removals took place until 1977 when t wasagreed that a further 20 black rhinos could be madeavailable from Hluhluwe over a 5 year period to largeconservation areas within the species’ former range andwhere habitat conditions were suitable. In the meantime,we re-assessed the population structure in Hluhluwe andUmfolozi using data from 1975—977 and found that thesex and age ratios were very similar to those reported in1972 by Peter Hitchins, arid as recorded deaths haddecreased we assumed that the population had probablynot declined. This assessment was carried out during ahigh rainfall cycle when black rhinos were unlikely to havebeen under significant environmental stress, and theremovals represented less than the expected rate ofincrease for Hluhluwe of 5%.

The next dry cycle began in 1977/78, the stocking ratesof both grazers and browsers in the reserve were abovecarrying capacity and the habitat rapidly deteriorated. By1979 most of the vegetation monitoring sites showed over-utilisation of the browse resources and 5 black rhino deathswere recorded in the late winter in Umfolozi. To pre-empta population decline such as had occurred in the 1960s,

Peter Hitchins and Jeremy Anderson recommended thatthe black rhino density in Umfolozi should be reduced, and14 animals were removed in 1980. The dry cycle continued,so in late 1980 Tony Whateley, Jeremy Anderson and Idecided to re-sample population structures throughout thearea. This was made possible through a donation ofhelicopter hours by the Endangered Wildlife Trust. A totalof 128 rhino, or 37% of the population, were contacted in19 hours flying. The results were extremely interesting, asthe percentages of immature rhino under 3.5 years old inHluhluwe and Umfolozi (excluding the central corridor)were only 11% and 8% respectively, and no calves undera year were recorded in Umfolozi.

On the basis of this study, it was recommended thatthe population density of black rhino throughout Hluhluwe-Umfolozi should be depressed by removing 30 animals in1981, and that thereafter the

‘expected’ rate of increase each year should beremoved. A similar policy was adopted for Mkuzi andNdumu Game Reserves, so that as from 1982 about 19black rhino became available annually.

In this way, a total of 135 rhino have been moved fromthe Zululand Reserves since 1962. Within Natal, therecipients have been Ndumu (15), Itala (23) and Weenen(4); while translocations externally have been limited toPilanesberg Game Reserve in Bophutatswana (23) andKruger National Park in the Transvaal (70).

Reports on the performances of the black rhino in thelatter two areas are most encouraging. For example, inKruger Anthony Hall-Martin has reported that they arebreeding faster than the parent Hluhluwe-Umfolozipopulation, this being shown by higher immature (<3.5y):adult female ratios (1.2 versus 0.4) and a higher percentageof calves under one year old (9% versus 5%). This is at ablack rhino density of about 0.2/km2 in Kruger as opposedto 0.36 in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi.

The future for the black rhinoceros in South Africatherefore looks bright, providing adequate protectivemeasures against poaching can be maintained. However,as a precautionary measure, the Natal Parks Board ishoping to send 5 rhinos to a captive breeding project inthe USA. The concept is to create a reservoir outside Africawhich could be drawn on to re-stock reserves at a laterdate, particularly if local extinction had occurred.

Martin Brooks

The first stage has been completed. Using data fromculled elephants provided by Ian Parker, mathematicalmodels have been developed which use tuskmeasurements to determine sex and age. There were threesteps to this. The first was to determine which tuskmeasurements are thc most reliable. This was done bycomparing right and left tusks for the same elephant,recognizing that if one cannot accurately predict one tuskfrom the other, it would be unwise to attempt to predictanything else.

All tusk measurements are quite reliable. Weight andlip circumference are best, and equally good, followed bytotal length. It is interesting that two of these measures,length and weight, are of dimensions altered by wear and

Figure 10. Black rhino.

In the first newsletter of the African Elephant and RhinoSpecialist Group, we announce a new project, funded bythe New York Zoological Society, whose goal was toelaborate the relationship between ivory trade statisticsand the status of the elephant populations from which theivory comes. Ian Parker had made important progress inthis area, while pointing out the need for further study.Parker’s results are being thoroughly re-examined, andthe full extent of their application explored.

The project has two stages, the first looking at howmuch information can be derived about individual elephantsfrom individual tusks, and the second at how these resultscan be used to derive information about elephantpopulations from tusk populations.

16

breakage. This is a clear indication that tusk wear isremarkably even.

Single-tusked elephants provide a useful test for theimportance of wear and breakage, since their one tusk, astheir only tool, should be much more affected by thestresses of use. Elephants with just one tusk do tend tohave shorter tusks than those with two, but not nearly tothc extent expected. Almost one third actually have longertusks. This is almost certainly due to a high degree ofindividual variation.

Though important, individual variation is a minor factorin comparison with sexual dimorphism. Male and femaleelephants have significantly different tusk sizes andshapes. This allows tusks to be separated by sex, whichmust be done if estimates of age are to be correct. Becausedifferences resulting from individual variation, sexing oftusks can be done quite accurately.

Lip circumference and length can be used incombination to determine sex at a high level of accuracy.The table below presents the results of a sex of predictions.

Correct female guesses 371Wrong female guesses 52Correct male guesses 303Wrong male guesses 53

A total of 674 guesses of 779, or 86.5% were correct.

Tusk weight can also be used to determine sex, but itis much less accurate. Tusks weighing more than 14 kgare almost certainly from male elephants, but below thatweight guesses must be made on a stochastic basis. Thisreduces the absolute accuracy of any one guess, but forlarge samples the distribution of guesses shouldadequately duplicate the actual sex distribution.

Once tusks have been separated by sex, the age ofthe elephants they came from can be predicted. Age is amuch finer prediction than the binary division by sex, andindividual variation is a much more important factor. Modelsfor guessing age from tusk dimensions must not only beas accurate as possible, they must also include a clearand explicit evaluation of their accuracy. Therefore, themodels provide both a prediction, which is essentially amean of all possible values, and a variance, which can beused to calculate the range within actual values will vary

from predictions.The accuracy of the models is fairly good. With

reasonably large samples, the mean of the actual valueswill fall within about a five (± 21/2) year range for males,and within an eight (± 4) year range for females. Femalesare more difficult to age because their rate of tusk growthslows with age while individual variability continues toincrease. The ranges may seem a bit wide, but they arereally quite reasonable for an animal with a 60 year lifespan.

Given the models presented, a tusk can provide a greatdeal of information about the elephant it came from. Lipcircumference and total length, in combination, candetermine sex, and lip circumference or weight can predictage. Sex and age together can be used to constructmortality patterns, which give a clear idea of the elephantskilled to supply any ivory consignment which has had basictusk dimensions recorded.

Mortality patterns are not only useful in themselves,but have great potential for extending our knowledge. Theyare the product of the interaction of population structureand hunting patterns, and provide a basis for trying todetermine the status of elephant populations. Theconclusions must be tentative, as a number of assumptionsare required, but the possible applications are both variedand important.

Some work has already been done on the mean tuskweights that can be expected from given populationstructures and hunting patterns. This can be of great helpin evaluating a region’s hunting policy using lust the meantusk weight of ivory consignments. Another possibility isto examine the reproductive consequences of givenmortality patterns. It is clear that at some level of huntingintensity elephants will be killed faster than they can replacethemselves. If this level, and the mortality pattern whichsignals it, could be worked out through populationmodeling, situations of population decline could be spottedvery quickly.

The most important application combines the previoustwo. It should be possible to determine hunting patternswhich will produce the greatest amount of ivory perelephant. This would be to the advantage of both the ivorytrade and the elephants which supply the trade. Achievingthat goal will be difficult and complex, but clearlyworthwhile.

Sex Measure Age VarianceMale Circumference(c) e(–4.25 +2.12 lnc) 15.11[ 1 + 1 + (c—25.58)2

] m 354 9205389

Male Weight(w) e(1.76 +.58 Inw) 12.04[ 1 + 1 +(w—7.42)2

] m 1116 81741203

Female Circumference(c) e(–5.24+2.77 lnc) 39.26[ 1 + 1 + (c18.88)2

]

m 424 3933555.4

Female Weight(w) e(2.25+.72 Inw) 38.19[1 + 1 + (w—3.37)2 ]

m 1399 12493308

Tom PilgramDavid Western

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In the last issue of this Newsletter, Dr. Kes Hillmanpresented a status report on the Northern White rhino inSudan and Zaire, and drew attention to the precariousstatus of the sub-species and the need for urgentconservation action. As a result of Dr. Hillman’s surveywork, t appeared that the only viable population of NorthernWhites was to be found in the Garamba National Park innorth-east Zaire on the border with Sudan. Here, too, thesituation was critical, with just 15-20 rhinos surviving,according to an aerial survey carried out by Dr. MarkusBorner of the Frankfurt Zoological Society in conjunctionwith Dr. Hillman and the Zaire authorities.

A few weeks after the aerial survey in Garamba, AERSGmembers met in Harare, Zimbabwe on April 13th, and oneof the main items on the agenda was Garamba. Afterlengthy debate, the meeting concluded that the prioritiesestablished at the Rhino and Elephant Specialist Groups’meeting at Wankie in 1981 remained unchanged, and thatthe conservation of the Northern White rhino was still ofthe highest priority. The Harare meeting viewed the survivalof this sub-species as a test-case for the effectiveness ofconservation action in Africa, and recommended 3 maincourses of action:-

1. that an approach should be made to the Zaireauthorities to allow the translocation of a breeding nucleusfrom Garamba to the United States.2. that law enforcement capabilities in Garamba shouldbe upgraded, commencing with the immediate posting ofan effective law enforcement officer to the Park.3. that efforts should be made to search for and relocateoutlying individuals within the former range of the NorthernWhite rhino.

The meeting considered that translocation of thesurviving Northern Whites in Garamba into captivitypresented the only viable alternative to save the sub-species at this critical stage. In situ action was consideredfar too risky because of the very low numbers remaining,the concensus being that the rhino population was alreadywell below the threshold level for survival in the wild. Themeeting recommended that the American Association ofZoological Parks and Aquaria, AAZPA (which was alreadydrawing up contingency plans for the translocation,reception and management of the White rhinos to theUnited States in conjunction with AERSG Chairman Dr.David Western), should make a high-level approach to theZaire’s authorities to secure their approval for the operation.In turn, the meeting requested IUCN to initiate field actionto rehabilitate Garamba and to search for outlying rhinos.

Others were less certain of the advisibi l i ty oftranslocating the rhinos. The Frankfurt Zoological Society(FZS), whose representative Dr. Markus Borner played aleading role in the Garamba survey, felt that, howeverdesirable, translocation of the rhinos to the US. was unlikelyto be a politically viable option. FZS recommended analternative course of action: captive propogation withinZaire perhaps within Garamba National Park itself withhigh security protection and expert care.

A third option was put forward by Drs. Kes Hillman andPatrick Rogers (UNDP Chief Technical Advisor to the ZaireInstitute for the Conservation of Nature, IZCN). They

maintained that conservation of the White rhino in situ wasnot only a viable alternative, but was also the only politicallyacceptable and ecologically sound approach. In their view,conservation of the Northern Whites was more than just amatter of conserving the gene pool (which indeed couldbe achieved equally well in a captive situation) but ofconserving the sub-species as an integral part of theGaramba ecosystem. In addition, the proponentsmaintained that conservation of the White rhino in situ wasessential because of the symbolic nature of the rhino asfar as national conservation efforts in Zaire are concerned.It was this option which IZCN appeared to favour most.

Finally, a compromise position was advocated byAERSG Chairman, David Western, whereby an “end-point”for rhino numbers would be established. In this scenario,all concerned parties would agree in advance to a criticalminimum number at which all field efforts to save the sub-species would cease and captive propogation ensue. Thisproposal has been tentatively discussed with IZCN, whoare receptive, although no firm agreement has beenreached at this stage.

While the discussions on what specific action shouldbe taken to ensure the survival of the rhino continued, IUCNput the wheels in motion to implement AERSG’s secondrecommendation the rehabilitation of Garambawhich no-one denied was an essential step. In June, Mankoto maMbaelele, Scientific and Technical Director of IZCN, flewto Nairobi together with Pat Rogers, for discussions onthe design and implementation of the rehabilitationprogramme. A project was drafted and endorsed by IUCNand IZCN. Meanwhile, approaches were made to the WorldWildlife Fund, Frankfurt Zoological Society and UNESCO’sWorld Heritage Fund to provide funding for the programme,with positive results. By August, a detailed proposal for a$ 440,000 rehabilitation programme had been drafted andsubmitted to IZCN and IUCN for approval. WWF, FZS andUNESCO had all agreed to meet their share of the cost ofthe 3-year programme, and arrangements were underwayfor the purchase and delivery of equipment and suppliescalled for in the project document. As a stop-gapemergency measure, WWF/I UCN provided IZCN withurgently needed anti-poaching equipment and supplies inorder to safeguard the park until the main rehabilitationprogramme could begin.

At the time of writing, final approval for theimplementation of the full programme has been given bythe Zaire authorities and one of the two expatriate positionscalled for in the project document, that of TechnicalSpecialist, has been filled. The other post, SeniorManagement Advisor, has yet to be filled, although adecision is expected shortly. Meanwhile, British Leylandhave responded to an urgent appeal from WWF andprovided 4 Landrovers at cost price for immediate delivery,thus short-cutting the usual lengthy waiting list which wouldhave delayed start-up by several months. Other urgentlyneeded equipment, such as a complete radio networkdesigned by African Wildlife Foundation’s CommunicationsSpecialist, Howard Wood, is already on its way toGaramba.

The appointment of the Senior Management Advisorand the signing of the Contract arid Project Documentbetween IUCN and IZCN will set the stage for the

IUCN Helps Zaire Rehabilitate Garamba

18

implementation of the second of AERSG’s Hararerecommendations, just 7 months later – no mean feat whenone considers the slow turning of bureaucratic wheels.Hopefully, the project will be in full swing before the dryseason in Garamba gets well underway, so that a startcan be made on re-vamping the anti-poaching operationsbefore the poaching intensifies.

The question still remains: what specific action shouldbe taken to ensure the survival of Garamba’s rhinos’ thcsubject of AERSG’s first and priority recommendation?

CONSERVATION OF ELEPHANT IN SIERRA LEONE

With only 1.2% of the original forest zone left in SierraLeone, the decline of endemic fauna is the most dramaticof all the west African coastal countries. A recent surveyby Drs. Harold Roth and Gunter Merz, carried out in thecountry under thc auspices of SLENCA (Sierra LeoneEnvironment and Nature Conservation Association), andwith partial funding from WWF/IUCN, has looked at whateffect this massive reduction in the habitat has had on theSierra Leone forest elephant population.

The report shows how agriculture has restricted theelephants to small groups. Only those in Gola East andGola North Reserves (150 animals, occupying 50,000 ha)have a chance of long-term survival, and only if the presenttrend of at least 5% population decrease each year isstopped.

The research team considered that a comprehensivelong-term management and development plan for thesreserves is now vital. Recommended conservationmeasures include: marking boundaries, strategicallyposting game wardens and patrols, establishing a bufferzone, and providing access to visitors. The team felt thatcontrolled rotational forestry in Gola North would beacceptable, so long as a hunting ban is effectivelymaintained.

Drs. Roth and Merz recommended that Gola West andEast be proclaimed a National Park, and Gola North agame reserve. The feasibility of such legislation is,however, uncertain. In recent years, Sierra Leone hasexperienced a dramatic economic decline, and there is agreat need for foreign exchange. Timber is a major sourceof income for the nation and, with so little forest left whichis suitable for logging, it seems unlikely that the governmentwill set aside major logging concessions in Gola West andEast for wildlife conservation. The recent development ofa major saw mill and logging complex adjacent to Gola,funded by West Germany, will inevitably increase thepressure on these forests still further and is an additionaleconomic argument for proceeding with existing loggingplans.

DEMAND FOR EEC IVORY BAN

The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) on 30 June1983, issued a statement demanding that the EEC proposea regulation banning the import of ivory into the Community,similar to the regulation concerning whale products.

C.A.R. ELEPHANT POPULATION THREATENED BYPOACHING

Recent findings from Parc National Gounda St. Florisindicate that if efforts are not made to improve anti-poaching operations, the park’s elephant population ofabout 2,500 could disappear within several years. It isestimated that some 532 elephants were injured or killedduring this year alone. The report, compiled by a WWF/IUCN project team working in the park, gives a detailedaccount of the previous year’s poaching activities inGounda. 32 fresh elephant carcasses, with tusks removed,were found by the research team, predominately in thedry season from March to May. There were spear woundsin the hind quarters and autopsies revealed haemorrhagingby an unknown source of poisoning. Horse tracks leadingto camps were sometimes observed.

Besides monitoring the population, other research isbeing carried out on the elephants. R.G. Ruggiero iscarrying out an elephant time budget study. By compilingfive to six hundred hours of observations on variousindividuals, and statistically analysing, a clearer picture ofhabitat utilization will emerge. Useful dietry information isalso collected and the species of plant noted.

In Southern Gounda, K.L. Nelson is investigating thediurnal and seasonal variation in elephant movements.During the cold season (Jan/Feb), groups of 50 gather inthe floodplain and are active, except around mid-day. Inthe hot dry season (March/April), groups of less than 15rest near the wooded escarpment, moving only at night.Unfortunately, Nelson has also observed that elephantswill return to poached areas less than one month afterkillings have occurred. However, knowledge of theirseasonal and diurnal movements will aid in their protection.

BURUNDI HURRIES TO EXPORT IVORYThere is pressure for Burundi to export its ivory to

Belgium before January 1st when all EEC countries joinCITES. Attempts to get Burundi to sign CITES still proceed.

Burundi has only one elephant (in a zoo) but twelvetonnes of ivory per month are exported. This ivory probablyoriginates from neighbouring countries: Zaire, Tanzaniaand perhaps as far as Somalia.

The IZCN/IUCN Rehabilitation Programme is not designedto fulfil this objective and the Project Document clearlystates that additional action of some form is necessary ifthe rhino population is to be saved. What this action shouldbe, and who should carry t out, remains a thorny question,and there is little doubt that the various alternatives will bea topic of lively discussion at the forthcoming AERSGmeeting in Nairobi in December.

Robert Malpas

News in Brief

19

PILANESBERG NEW HOME FOR BLACK RHINOS

Eight black rhinos Diceros bicornis where successfullytranslocated from the Umfolozi and Hluhluwe GameReserve in Zululand to Pilanesberg Game Reserve inBophuthatswana this year. These eight animals (5 malesand 3 females) now bring the total number of black rhinosat Pilanesberg to 21, including two calves which have beenborn at Pilanesberg.

Special thanks are due to the Natal Parks Board whichis subsiding heavily the black rhino introductionprogramme at Pilanesberg as a conservation measurefor the species.

P. Hancock

CITES CONFERENCE IN BOTSWANA

The fourth meeting of the Conference of the partiesto the Convention for International Trade of EndangeredSpecies (CITES), was held in Gaborone, Botswana from19-30 April.

Parties discussed the role of the Central African Republicin the ivory trade. Although all ivory leaving the country hadvalid export permits, the quantities involved are much greaterthan could be accounted for by the hunting quota. It seemslikely that a lot of ivory may be imported without properdocumentation and then re-exported. The Secretariatthought that this situation could apply in other States andasked for suggestions as to possible control measures. Nonewas immediately forthcoming and the matter was referredto the Technical Committee (TEC).

Also discussed was the TEC document on Trade inAfrican Elephant Ivory which addressed the concern ofmany Parties over the practicability or the usefulness oflicensing all trade in worked ivory. Such a process imposesan extremely heavy administrative burden whilst, the Headof WTMU noted, the trade statistics for worked ivory arein any case useless for monitoring purposes. TECproposed that: the only pieces of ivory that should becontrolled in trade would be those weighing more than 1/2kg; that, in producing annual reports, Parties shouldindicate the numbers of substantially whole tusks inshipments and indicate the weights of consignments; andthat the controls applying to personal effects (under ArticleVII para. 3) apply as strictly as possible but only in relationto items of more than 1/2kg. However, India noted (Doc.4.23.1) that large consignments of very small pieces ofworked African ivory were exported from India and mightconceal Appendix 1 Asian ivory, so that licensing controlswere necessary. India also claimed dependence on otherParties to detect illegal imports of worked Indian ivory inshipments of African ivory but noted t was impossible totell the difference between them. The TEC proposal wasrejected. A draft Resolution was presented by a numberof African delegations, recognising the problems of Indiaand proposing a phase-out of ivory trade with India sothat, from 1 January 1986, no Party would permit theimport of any ivory, worked or unworked, from India. Thesponsors of this draft Resolution withdrew it withoutdiscussion and another Resolution was adopted (Conf.4.14) which directed TEC to draw up guidelines forcontrolling the trade in worked ivory as quickly as possible.

Traffic Bulletin22nd August 1983

ZAMBIA ENACTS STRICTER LEGISLATION FORIVORY AND RHINO POACHING

On 24th December 1982, by an Act of Parliament,Zambia introduced new and tougher penalties to counterthe poaching of both elephant and black rhinoceros andthe trafficking in their ivory and horns.

The new legislation entitled the National Parks andWildlife (Amendment) Act, 1982 (Act 32 of 1982) amendsthe principal National Parks and Wildlife Act as follows:-

(a)For the hunting, wounding, or molesting of any elephantor rhinoceros an offender receives imprisonment,without the option of a fine, for a term not exceedingten years.

(b)Similarly, the possession of, or selling, buying, importingor exporting of any prescribed trophy (which includesivory and rhino horn) brings a first offender a fine notexceeding ten thousand kwacha or imprisonment notexceeding ten years or both f ine and term ofimprisonment, while for a person’s second orsubsequent such offence, the penalty is imprisonment,without the option of a fine, for not more than ten years.

P.S.M. Berry

PRESIDENT NYERERE LAUNCHES RHINOCAMPAIGN

A nation-wide campaign to save the rhino was launchedby H.E. Dr. J.K. Nyerere, President of Tanzania, on 15thJune 1983 at the College of African Wildlife Management,Mweka, Moshi at the climax of the College’s 20thanniversary celebrations.

The campaign was launched in line with internationalpublic awareness on the plight of the black rhinoceroswhose number has dwindled drastically in the last decade.By launching the campaign the Government of Tanzaniajoined forces with other nations as well as other leadingconservation organizations in a coordinated emergencyeffort to save this magnificient species.

The campaign aims at educating the masses on theimportance of conservation of rhinos and other species.The methods being applied include distribution of posters,radio programmes, newspaper articles, choir songs, filmshows and music hits composed by local jazz bands. Inaddition, special “khangas” and T-shirts have been printedin an effort to bring the message home.

Mr. F.M.R. LwezaulaDirector of Wildlife

We welcome articles for the next newsletter. Articlesshould cover points of information, or topical interest,relevant to elephant and rhino conservation, and shouldbe no longer than 1500 words. We will publish suitableblack and white photos and graphics and may edit somearticles. The deadline for submission to the next newsletteris lune 1st 1984.

Lucy VigneEditor

Published by the IUCN Species Survival Commission African Elephant and Rhino Specialist Group.Typeset and layout by Kanaya Designs & Typesetters. Printed by Man Graphics Ltd.