FOREWORD 
This paper by Dr. Lee M. Talbot is a stimulating treatise on a 
long neglected subject. Ordinarily when we speak of values associated 
with the harvest of wild ungulates we consider them from the standpoint 
of the sport and recreation produced and relegate to secondary consid¬ 
eration the food value of the animals. 
Dr. Talbot's paper "Wild Animals as a Source of Food" is based 
largely on his own several years of research on ungulates in East and 
Central Africa. It dramatically illustrates the great potential for 
scientific game cropping in this vast area of Africa and other areas 
of the world. 
Land managers frequently overlook the fact that the indigenous 
wild animals, having evolved with the environment, may be far more 
efficient in utilizing plants and converting them to protein than our 
few domestic animals. 
Conditions over much of the land area of the earth because of 
climate, terrain, diseases, and other factors are unfavorable for the 
production of domestic livestock, yet in some areas as many as twenty 
species of wild ungulates thrive. These animals are greatly superior 
to domestic livestock in terms of biomass, carrying capacity, produc¬ 
tivity, live weight gains, use of plant life and resistance to drought, 
diseases and parasites. Further, there is much evidence that some 
wild ungulates can be domesticated. The potential for scientific 
management with resulting great improvement in the economy and general 
well-being of the people involved is self evident. 
It is to be hoped that the principles espoused by Dr. Talbot can 
gain greater acceptance throughout the world. The task will be very 
difficult, but the results will be supremely worth the effort. 
John S. Gottschalk 
Director, Bureau of Sport Fisheries 
and Wildlife 
ii 
