314 
GAME AND DISEASE 
have been received of damage done by eland, that the special 
protection given to them in these areas has been taken away. 
Since, however, they have increased just as much or more 
in the outside districts, I have no fear of any ill effects : in 
fact, I consider that eland and buffalo have now reached a 
stage where, under fair sporting shooting, there should be 
no danger of their being much reduced in numbers. 
Another animal which suffered, and was slow in its recovery, 
was the bongo. This animal is always looked upon as rare, 
but is really common, and is found in quite large herds in its 
own particular haunts — the high dense forests. 
To-day the bongo is no easier to shoot than he was ; but 
he is fifty times more common than he was fifteen to twenty 
years ago. 
The other game never suffered to an extent sufficient 
to throw them back more than a year or two. 
Wild pigs of all sorts suffer from rinderpest. In South 
Africa, I saw my first bush-pig, dead — not one, but many ; and 
in British East Africa the outbreaks amongst warthog have 
been numerous. In fact, it is almost certain that if rinderpest 
breaks out, the -warthog will get it — even when there are no 
records of the disease amongst other game — and I look upon 
them as a distinct cause in spreading the disease. 
Without doubt the game, and also the local cattle, have 
developed to some extent an immunity against the disease ; 
yet the warthog does not appear to have done so. 
If game were still as susceptible to rinderpest as they 
were at one time, the disease would not be in isolated areas 
as it is to-day, but would, after the first outbreak, in a few 
days, be all over the country. This would also apply where 
double inoculation was being practised ; yet I have not been 
able to hear of the spread of the disease from any such centre. 
On the point of the distribution of rinderpest, I personally 
think that to-day the tick-bird, as well as the vulture, is an 
obvious danger ; yet it must be admitted that Mr. F. C. Selous’s 
statement that the vultures vanished during the outbreak in 
Rhodesia, and the fact that the disease travelled as fast 
in South Africa, where vultures had been practically exter- 
minated. shows that they are not the chief carriers. 
