THE CONSERVATION OF AFRICAN PLAINS GAME AS 

 A FORM OF LAND USE 



W. H. Pears ALL 



6 Pemberton Drive, Morecambe, Lancashire 



As a land-hungry human population crowds in more and more on the 

 remaining wild places of the world, the problem of what is to become of 

 the remaining populations of indigenous plants and animals assumes a greater 

 and greater urgency. The naturalist-scientist and big-game hunter are both 

 easily satisfied that samples of these organisms should be preserved. Often 

 the novelty of seeing wild animals in their natural surroundings has created 

 a tourist interest and a trade which has persuaded even governments to set 

 aside nature reserves and national parks (in Africa) in which to concentrate 

 this interest. 



It is unfortunately true that httle attention has been paid by ecologists to 

 the scientific basis of these measures, and I propose to record some reflections 

 on the problems which are involved in one type of game conservation — 

 taking as an example the plains game in East Africa and to hmit the scope 

 somewhat particularly, to those visiting the Serengeti Plains. 



PLAINS GAME AND THEIR HABITAT 



In the Serengeti one may still see some of the remaining herds of African 

 plains game animals and their attendant predators; on the one hand the 

 wildebeest, zebras, gazelles, buffalo and numerous forms of antelope, large 

 and small, and on the other, hons, leppards, cheetahs, hyenas and the hke. 



Most of the plains game are migratory animals and as far as is known they 

 are now confined to arid areas with seasonal and uncertain rainfall. Three 

 types of locahty are thus involved in the typical habitats — wet-season 

 grazing, dry-season grazing and migration routes between. In Northern 

 Tanganyika the wet-season grazing lies on the famous Serengeti Plains — 

 deep sediments with, in the east, a covering of fertile volcanic ash, lying 

 at an altitude of some 1,650 m (5,500 ft) in the lee of the Crater Highlands. 



