THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 210.— June, 1894, 



THE PRESERVATION OF AFRICAN BIG GAME. 

 By Capt. A. H. Gibbons. 



[A Committee of English sportsmen and naturalists having been 

 formed for the purpose of devising some scheme for the protection of 

 South African mammals, chiefly Giraffe, Zebra, Eland, Gnu, Koodoo, and 

 other Antelopes, several of which (owing to indiscriminate slaughter) are 

 already on the verge of extinction, the following statement has been drawn 

 up by Capt. A. H. Gibbons for the consideration of the British South 

 African Chartered Company. — Ed.] 



It is a notorious fact that many species of South African 

 game, notably such as have not receded northwards before the 

 advance of colonisation, are becoming so scarce, that some of the 

 rarer species will shortly follow in the wake of the now extinct 

 Quagga, unless steps are taken to preserve them before it is too 

 late. To meet this end it is proposed : — 



(1). That a Society be formed which shall have for its object 

 the preservation of small herds of each of the thirty-five or forty 

 distinct species having their habitat within measurable distance 

 of the district selected for the enclosure proposed below. 



(2). That for this purpose a suitable tract of country — of say 

 100,000 acres — be enclosed with a wire-fencing, strengthened by 

 a strong live fence of thorn on the outside. It is hoped that the 

 British South African Chartered Company, in consideration of 

 the objects of the Society, may allow such an enclosure to be 

 made in the district near Fort Salisbury which has already been 

 reserved for game by the Company. In this district the Eland, 



ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XVIII.— JUNE, 1894. R 



