Harvest Methods 
Free-ranging animals and game ranching 
Free-ranging wild animals are somewhat more difficult to harvest 
than domestic livestock that can be driven to the slaughter house. How¬ 
ever, it can be done on a large scale with surprising efficiency and 
economy. The most widespread method is by shooting, often with a spot¬ 
light at night. The animals are shot, bled, and taken back to a central 
abbatoir, for butchering. 
Members of the United Nations mission accompanied a regular night 
harvesting operation at one game ranch in Southern Rhodesia. In roughly 
1 \ hours 17 animals had been collected by 1 car. At another ranch that 
was visited the operation was so efficient that even elephants weighing 
several tons were loaded onto trucks using collapsable derricks and trans¬ 
ported immediately back to the abbatoir. 
On one ranch in the same area, game harvesting has continued for 
about 10 years at a constantly increasing rate. The wild animals are 
still plentiful, the yield is greater than that of cattle on the same 
land, the animals have not been dispersed by the operation, and since 
they are not shot by a car in the daytime, they are as tame and easy 
to approach from a car in daylight as those in many national parks and 
reserves. 
Game harvesting on an organized basis is a relatively new industry 
and is increasing rapidly. In the Transvaal between 2,000 and 3,000 pri¬ 
vate farms and ranches are harvesting wildlife on a commercial basis 
(Riney, 1963). In that area in 1959 alone over 7 million pounds of meat 
were taken from private ranches, and this does not include meat from 
government owned and managed wildlife ranches and reserves (ibid.). In 
Southern Rhodesia, although one ranch has harvested wild animals for 
about 10 years, game ranching on an organized basis has been in opera¬ 
tion for only about 3 years (Savory, 1963; Dasmann, 1963; Mossman, 1963). 
Nine large cattle ranches are now harvesting wildlife and they have 
founded a Game Ranchers Association. Examples of large scale game har¬ 
vesting from other countries include harvest of the Saigan antelope 
(Saiga sp.) in the U.S.S.R. where by 1961 over 200,000 were killed 
annually in a commercial operation (Harthoorn, 1961). 
Economic game cropping is not limited to ranch-type operations. In 
Northern Rhodesia, for example, there are two small scale but economic 
pilot cropping operations on African reserves. In Uganda a profitable 
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