ORDER PROBOSCIDEA: PROBOSCIDEANS 321 



bers are other than steadily increasing in all parts of the protec- 

 torate in which this great beast occurs." In 1934, it is said that 

 2,716 elephants were killed in Tanganyika Territory. Taylor, in 

 East Africa, July 9, 1936, believes that the method of control adopted 

 is "the most humane method possible of enabling men and elephant 

 to live in peace and concord in one territory." With the stopping 

 of such methods of slaughter as once were practiced by natives in 

 encircling elephant herds by grass fires and using pitfalls, and with 

 the reduction of poaching for ivory, and the licensing of hunters, no 

 doubt the hazards for the species are sufficiently lessened to counter- 

 balance the large numbers just noted that are killed in control 

 measures. The ivory from such elephants as are killed in this way 

 is Government property and a source of revenue. Ivory is also a 

 regular product of the Belgian Congo, where many animals must 

 annually be killed, although at the present time this requires special 

 license. 



For the future, the opinion of those conversant with the situation 

 seems to be that in South Africa the relatively small areas of national 

 reserves may continue to hold elephant herds indefinitely, but the 

 size of the herds must be regulated by the area of the reserve and 

 its suitability to their needs. With reduction to small numbers there 

 is always a danger of an unlooked-for change which may be un- 

 favorable. In South-West Africa, the numbers yet remaining are 

 under government protection, so far as it may be enforceable, but 

 the elephants here doubtless owe their continuation quite as much 

 to the inaccessibility of their habitat. In the less settled parts of 

 East Africa, they will continue in numbers and with the present 

 efficient supervision of the game departments should prove on the 

 whole a decided asset and attraction, notwithstanding a certain 

 amount of local damage to plantations. In Uganda, where the herds 

 are still abundant, there is evidence of slight increase in numbers in 

 some districts, while in the great papyrus swamps of "the Sudd" of 

 the upper Nile, they are present in great numbers and are likely to 

 find this a safe retreat. Airplane photographs taken by the late Mar- 

 tin Johnson in this region show some astonishingly large herds. The 

 game warden of Uganda in his report for 1925 believes that with 

 the spread of settlement and development elephants will have to be 

 killed out or "expelled" from certain areas, but that, since extermi- 

 nation is impossible and impracticable, good sanctuaries are neces- 

 sary, which shall protect the main breeding areas of the herds. 

 Elephants quickly learn to recognize the areas in which they are 

 free from molestation, so that this trait will help to keep them within 

 such bounds. A proper sanctuary, however, must include sheltered 

 valleys with abundance of food and sufficient water, else at periods 

 of drought the animals will move off in search of better localities. 



G. M. A. 



