320 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



points of view, the African Elephant has for centuries supplied a 

 large part of the world's demand for ivory; it is a source of meat 

 for many native tribes; and in recent years it has again been the 

 subject of attempts at domestication, in this instance in the Belgian 

 Congo, where imported mahouts from India as well as tame Indian 

 Elephants have succeeded in rendering the Forest Elephant more or 

 less tractable. Their timidity, however, often impairs their useful- 

 ness, while the large amounts of food they require add to the diffi- 

 culty of an economical value. According to Lavauden (1933, pp. 

 21-22), in 1921, ivory to the amount of 800 tons of elephants' tusks 

 was sent to the world's markets; in 1925 this had fallen to 500 tons, 

 but the average weight of the tusks had considerably decreased as 

 well. Elephants, on the other hand, often do much damage to the 

 crops of the agricultural natives, wrecking their fields, granaries, and 

 even houses at times. This damage, although "it is very doubtful if 

 it would amount to 1 percent of the entire crop," is nevertheless at 

 times a considerable loss, and of late years measures have been taken 

 in countries under British rule to cope with this, by appointing an 

 official to undertake elephant control through killing a certain num- 

 ber in areas where they are reported to be doing such damage. In 

 his book Elephant, David E. Blunt (1933), who had charge of this 

 work in East Africa, reports that elephants seem very quickly to 

 learn the bounds of regions to which they must be confined, and 

 after a few of a marauding herd are shot the trouble to plantations 

 is stopped for at least the time being. Thus while it is possible by 

 this means to reduce greatly the elephant damage in agricultural 

 areas near large forests or other country inhabited by herds of these 

 animals, it is likely that with increase of settlement this protection 

 of crops will become less needed, and the animals will gradually give 

 way. Nevertheless there will undoubtedly be plenty of elephants in 

 some sections of Africa for many years to come, in spite of hunting. 

 Moreover, these will prove an asset on account of the returns from 

 purchases of big-game licenses and additional fees for each elephant. 

 In East Africa animals with tusks under fifty pounds in weight (the 

 two together) may not legally be killed under penalty and confis- 

 cation of the ivory. This limit, according to Brocklehurst (1933), 

 has been lately reduced in Abyssinia from 30 to 20 pounds so that 

 females now are killed. 



It appears from statistics that Uganda is likely to be one of the 

 regions where elephants will long hold out and may be an asset in 

 the way mentioned. In 1929, the Game Department reported a kill 

 of 1,439 elephants, of which 1,135 were accounted for by the Govern- 

 ment control operations. In 1931 the Game staff killed 1,211; in 

 1933, the number was 1,380, and yet "with the exception of the Toro 

 district, the southern portion of West Nile, and possibly the 

 Mubende district, there is no reason to believe that elephant num- 



