Thanks to the protection afforded it by the Belgian Government, the northern race of the white, or square-lipped rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum cottoni, is increasing in the Garamba National Park of the Belgian Congo. This park was specially created in 1938 to preserve the species, whose numbers there were down to about a hundred individuals. They now probably approach 1,000. But the story of the black rhinoceros, Diceros bicornis, is very different. Once common in the savannahs of Katanga, but now exterminated there, it used also to exist in the east of Ruanda, notably in what is now the Kagera National Park. So, in 1958, bearing in mind its success with the white rhinoceros, the National Parks of the Belgian Congo decided to try to reintroduce the black rhinoceros into Kagera. This rhinoceros is still not rare in some parts of Tanganyika Territory, especially in Karagwe district, but that country is separated from the Kagera Park in Ruanda by the River Kagera itself.

During recent years there have been repeated reports of extravagant exploitation of the walrus by Eskimos and these have been strengthened by aerial observation of many headless carcasses on beaches of the Bering Sea. So in 1958 the United States Fish and Wildlife Service decided upon an inquiry into the Pacific Walrus, and its hunting and utilization by Eskimo in the Bering Sea region.

To preserve the last surviving remnants of gravely endangered species of fauna and flora from total extinction becomes more urgent every day, as the spread of civilization takes over their native habitat. In 1931, when the American Committee for International Wild Life Protection was established, it focused attention on the need for gathering information about gravely endangered species of mammals and birds. The Committee raised funds to support research on this subject, which culminated in the publication of Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Western Hemisphere by Glover M. Allen in 1942, Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Old World by Francis Harper in 1945, and Extinct and Vanishing Birds of the World by James C. Greenway, Jr., in 1958. These volumes furnish a base line of knowledge to assist future efforts in the protection of endangered species.

The Atlantic Grey Seal, Halichoerus grypus, is one of the world's rarer mammals. In 1954 R. M. Lockley estimated its total population as 33,500 and there is no reason to suppose there has since been an increase. About 20,000 of these seals live in colonies around the coasts of the British Isles, all on the north and west, except for one colony which inhabits the Fame Islands, a National Trust nature reserve off the Northumberland coast.

For some years past I have had a feeling that our approach to the conservation of the flora and fauna all over the world, but especially in Africa, has been too static. This does not fit in well with the natural situations which we want to perpetuate, for they are nearly all dynamic situations. Admittedly we have moved our standpoint to some extent recently: for instance, the idea that particular species endangered by advancing civilization could survive by giving them individual protection has been generally discarded in favour of conserving the habitats in which such species live and which are prerequisites to their continued existence. But there is still much emphasis on trying to retain the status quo, say in a national park or strict natural reserve, by putting around it a real or symbolic fence and regarding the area and its ecology as sacrosanct and there for ever. And yet wherever a particular ecological situation has been studied, whether it is hinged on elephants or earthworms, the conclusion is always reached that it is dynamic–subject to continual change of balance of populations, of food relations, of chemistry and physics of the environment. Indeed nature will never stand still however much we might sometimes wish it to; and on top of all the natural changes are others imposed by mankind.

In 1953–54 the senior author worked with the Royal National Parks of Kenya in making ecological studies and in surveying the position of the wildlife resource and the national parks in that country (Petrides, 1955, 1956). In 1956–57 both of us undertook similar work in a neighbouring territory Uganda, under the sponsorship of the Uganda National Parks and the Uganda Game Department (Petrides and Swank, 1958). These studies were under Fulbright research awards of the United States government. In addition, visits en route were made to all major countries, from Capetown to Cairo, in the eastern half of Africa. Most important national parks and game areas were seen.

This is an old topic and a battle in which our Society has been fighting for the past thirty-five years on behalf of wild life. Here is some new scientific light upon it.

The decision to build a dam at Kariba involved the Federal Government and the governments of both Northern and Southern Rhodesia in a vast amount of planning. The resettlement of 50,000 Tonga tribesmen was undertaken at a cost of about £4 million. Plans for the development of three township areas on each side of the new lake are under way.

Chitawan and neighbouring areas of Nepal have long been famous for their abundance of big game, including the Great Indian One-horned Rhinoceros, Rhinoceros unicornis, which is now one of the vanishing species of the world. For many years this part of southern central Nepal was the strictly guarded shooting preserve of the rulers of that country ; but with the advent of democracy and unsettled political conditions in 1951, the exact status of the area and of the rhinoceros in it has not been clear to the outside world. Reports were in circulation of alarming slaughter by poachers in recent years, especially in the year 1958–59 ; but lack of authentic information prompted the Survival Service Commission of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature to ask me to investigate the distribtion and status of the Rhinoceros in Nepal, and to suggest measures for the preservation of this species in Nepal.

The following observations on the Long-haired or Schweinfurth's Chimpanzee, Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii, represent several brief but concerted efforts to locate wild chimpanzees in western Uganda in the months of October and November, 1957 and 1958. The authors’ appreciation is extended to Mrs. Belle J. Benchley and to Dr. Ernst Schwarz for reading the manuscript and providing helpful suggestions.

The rhinoceros area in Nepal covers approximately 1,250 square miles, comprising the valleys of the Rivers Narayani, Rapti, and Reu. Although it is dun country, it contains most of the sub-tropical vegetation usually associated with terai country, and can roughly be divided into (1) riverain, (2) grassland above flood level, and (3) sal forest. The hills are almost entirely under sal (Shorea robusta), a valuable hardwood.

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

On 3rd December, 1958, the two ports in the Kariba Dam, through which the whole volume of the great Zambesi River was then flowing were closed. This heralded not only a major step in this vast engineering project but also the commencement of the greatest environmental upset ever to befall a population of animals and birds within the African continent, in the memory of man.