214 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



territories, especially with regard to elephants, has emphasized 

 control at the expense of conservation, but such criticism appears 

 to result largely from a misunderstanding of local conditions. It is 

 true that in most areas the general damage by grain-eating birds 

 and rodents throughout the year far surpasses that by elephants, 

 but one night's local depredation by elephants may destroy a 

 year's labour for a few families and reduce them to a state of 

 starvation. It is for this reason that game departments are tending 

 more and more to be occupied with the protection of cultivators 

 when necessary by direct control measures. 



A noteworthy example of a controversy which can only be 

 settled on the basis of further research, is that arising from the 

 wholesale destruction of game in Southern Rhodesia as a measure 

 against cattle trypanosomiasis. This provoked protests from scien- 

 tific workers in Great Britain and elsewhere, who have pointed out 

 that not enough is yet known about the relations between game 

 animals and stock diseases to warrant organized slaughter; that 

 tsetse flies are known to feed on the numerous small mammals, 

 some species even on reptiles such as crocodiles and lizards, so that 

 even the complete extermination of large game animals would not 

 destroy the sources of disease. On the other hand, arguments can 

 be found to support the policy of game destruction. According 

 to Sir David Bruce, for instance, when the cattle in South Africa 

 were destroyed by rinderpest, the tsetse fly and the consequent 

 nagana fever also disappeared; when the catde were re-established, 

 tsetse fly returned. It is claimed moreover, by R. W.Jack (1934 and 

 1935) Government Entomologist in Southern Rhodesia, that the 

 present campaign against game animals in the Sebungwe district 

 is really succeeding in its object of driving back the tsetse fly. The 

 criticism of this policy led to the appointment of an authoritative 

 local committee of inquiry who upheld the policy on the ground 

 that other methods of tsetse control, such as 'late burning' and 

 'densification of vegetation', which have proved successful in Tan- 

 ganyika, are impracticable in Southern Rhodesia owing to local 

 conditions. 



The whole question of the interrelation of game, stock, and tsetse 

 is far too complicated to be summarized in a few paragraphs; it is 

 one on which further research is required as a basis for the formu- 



