ORDER ARTIODACTYLA : EVEN-TOED UNGULATES 723 



Selous (in Bryden, 1899, pp. 421-422) says: 



Time was when these magnificent animals roamed in herds over the whole 

 of South Africa from Cape Agulhas to the Zambesi. . . . Even now, or at 

 any rate as lately as 1896 for it is impossible to tell just at present how 

 much havoc the terrible plague of rinderpest which has recently swept through 

 South Africa has worked amongst the elands the range of this species, 

 although it has long been banished from all the settled states of South Africa, 

 is or was still very extensive. It is said that a few elands yet survive amongst 

 the fastnesses of the Drakensberg mountains, where that range divides Basuto- 

 land from Natal; but with this exception I doubt whether any of these ani- 

 mals are still to be found anywhere within the borders of Natal, Zululand, 

 Swaziland, the Cape Colony, British Bechuanaland, the Orange Free State, 

 Griqualand West, or the Transvaal. From all these territories they have been 

 driven long ago. 



"At the present time there are still a few left in the mountainous 

 country along the Basutoland, Griqualand East, and Natal borders ; 

 beyond the Colony there are a certain number in the North Kalahari, 

 in ... the country between Beira and Mozambique, and possibly in 

 Zululand and the Transvaal Eastern frontier; elsewhere they have 

 been nearly exterminated." (W. L. Sclater, 1900, vol. 1, p. 250.) 



"Nothing could be more encouraging than the reports received 

 regarding the increase of this fine species formerly extinct in the 

 Transvaal. It seems now to be found in all areas north of the Oli- 

 fants River, and there are even unconfirmed reports of individuals 

 having been seen south of it." (Ann. Kept. Transvaal Game Reserve, 

 1925.) 



"Eland have become more and more common in the north, and 

 Ranger Botha saw a herd of well over a hundred with a number of 

 calves in his section" (Ann. Rept. Kruger National Park, 1934) . 



The present range of this Eland includes parts of the Kalahari 

 Desert and the Kruger National Park in the northeastern Transvaal ; 

 it is strictly preserved in both areas. Depletion has been brought 

 about by man and by the rinderpest epidemic of 1896. There are 

 many possibilities in utilization through domestication. (Warden of 

 Kruger National Park, in litt., December, 1936.) 



In Natal the animal is rigidly protected in the Giant's Castle 

 Game Reserve, where there are approximately 1,500 individuals. 

 Recently a few have been successfully established in the Hluhluwe 

 Reserve. (Administrator's Office, Natal, in litt., December, 1936.) 



With the exception of those in the reserves just mentioned, "and 

 one or two small troops on enclosed farms in the Transvaal and 

 Orange Free State, Eland are already extinct in the Union of South 

 Africa" (Shortridge, 1934, vol. 2, p. 610) . 



