ZOOLOGY 225 



the Belgian Congo are best known ornithologically, and are being 

 most actively explored. Within the British areas knowledge is 

 inevitably uneven; for example, the birds of Kenya and Uganda 

 are better known than those of Tanganyika, where a number of 

 island mountains, of potential interest from the evolutionary point 

 of view, are still largely or completely unknown to zoological 

 science. A series of annual grants has been made by the Trustees 

 of the Godman Exploration Fund, connected with the British 

 Museum (Natural History), to enable the birds of those areas to 

 be studied by Mr. Moreau from the research station at Amani. 



ANIMAL ECOLOGY 



This is a newly developed branch of zoology of which the possi- 

 bilities are not yet fully realized. It implies the study of every aspect 

 of the dependence of animals on their environment and on each 

 other. Since all animals are dependent directly or indirectly on 

 plants for food, the study of animal ecology involves corresponding 

 studies of vegetation. Such important problems as those created 

 by the tsetse fly can be solved eventually only by exhaustive ecologi- 

 cal studies on the tsetse fly itself (autecology), combined with de- 

 tailed studies of its environment (synecology), such as the distri- 

 bution of plants and movements of game, stock, and man. Thus the 

 department of tsetse research in Tanganyika is essentially an 

 ecological department. 



Economic problems to which animal ecology is relevant are 

 mentioned in nearly every section of this report: diseases of domes- 

 tic animals and of man, pests of agriculture and forestry, the con- 

 servation and control of game animals and birds, and fisheries. On 

 account of this wide scope it is the ecological method of approach 

 rather than ecology as a specialized subject which is important. 



Some of the work of game departments in estimating the popu- 

 lation of different animals and in studying their migrations takes 

 the form of ecological survey, and is a branch of study which 

 requires much more intensive work before the place of wild animals 

 in the economy of African territories is sufficiently known. The 

 part played by animals in the spread of disease is especially impor- 

 tant, and therefore game research is included in the work of the 

 tsetse department of Tanganyika. Many diseases in addition to 



