ORDER ARTIODACTYLA : EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 505 



Its most favourite country at the present day south of the Zambesi is 

 undoubtedly in the vast, waterless, giraffe-acacia forests of the North Kalahari. 

 Here, far from permanent water, in country where even native hunters can 

 scarcely penetrate, large troops of giraffes still roam. In this, the most waterless 

 portion of South Africa, giraffes have the faculty of being able to exist for 

 long periods six or seven months at a time without drinking. . . . Since 

 firearms and hunting horses were introduced especially the latter the des- 

 truction of these magnificent creatures has proceeded much more rapidly than 

 of old. . . . 



The Dutch and native hunters of South Africa . . . slaughter mercilessly 

 whenever opportunity occurs. Dutch hunters have, of course, used horses for 

 hunting for some generations past. In more recent years the Griquas and 

 the various Bechuana tribes have become possessed also of horse-flesh .... 

 They penetrate even into the waterless deserts after the periodical rains; and 

 . . . they are enabled, by the use of horses, to pursue and slay large numbers 

 of giraffe and eland in the very heart of the Kalahari Thirstland itself. 



The value of the hide of a full-grown giraffe is from 4 to 6, the skin 

 being largely employed for making native sandals and colonial whips, known 

 universally in South Africa as sjamboks. There is a constant commercial 

 demand for these hides. As a consequence, Boer and native hunters are to 

 be found shooting giraffes in large numbers, and, for the miserable value of 

 their skins, these noble and unique creatures are, year by year, and month by 

 month, persecuted and pursued until they threaten, at no very distant period, 

 to become extinct south of the Zambesi. . . . Seven or eight years ago 

 the number of giraffes slain during two seasons by native hunters round Lake 

 Ngami, a famous headquarter of these tall beasts, amounted to more than 

 300 head of those animals. . . . 



In the farthest recesses of the Kalahari . . . seventy or eighty may occa- 

 sionally be seen during the day, according to reports of the Masarwa bush- 

 men. 



Selous (1914, pp. 41-42) says of this animal: 



In South Africa some 120 years ago the giraffe was still plentiful im- 

 mediately north of the Orange River, in Great Namaqualand, and from 

 there it ranged without a break northwards through Bechuanaland and the 

 Kalahari .... Many decades of hunting . . . have very much curtailed the 

 range of the giraffe in this part of the continent; but it is quite a mistake to 

 think that the indiscriminate slaughter of these most interesting animals is 

 still going on in those regions, and that the species in that part of Africa is 

 in immediate danger of extinction. . . . Throughout most of the Bechuana- 

 land Protectorate, the Northern Kalahari, and from thence to the Province of 

 Angola, giraffes are still to be found in fair numbers. . . . Few animals 

 will be less affected by the advance of European settlement in Africa than 

 giraffes, as, although they may be found in certain well-watered districts, 

 they are more often met with in semi-desert tracts, where no European settle- 

 ment can ever take place, and in which only a very sparse native population 

 can live. 



"Giraffes occurred at one time in Namaqualand south of the 

 Orange River, but were soon exterminated there when settlers ad- 

 vanced; the same may be said of Griqualand West" and "southern 

 Bechuanaland." They survive "precariously in parts of Bechuana- 

 land, where the natives are allowed to hunt them with but little 

 restraint." (A. Roberts, in Hit., November, 1936.) 



