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INTERNATIONAL In 18 countries of the world lice are now resistant to these pesticides. In The Golden Ark some Latin American countries, in- In addition to the names mentioned on cluding Guatemala, and in India, page 27 of the May issue, the malaria is now worse than before the following distinguished conservationists eradication programmes started. In were invested with the insignia of the Sri Lanka (Ceylon) the number of Golden Ark at a special ceremony at malaria cases increased in five years Soestdijk Palace at The Hague on from 18 to two million. Urban malaria May 3: William O. Douglas (USA), is also increasing in both India and Sir Frank Fraser Darling (UK), Pakistan, and is being spread by a Laurence Rockefeller (USA), President different vector, which is resistant to Mobutu (Zaire), Salim Ali (India), both DDT and BHC. In parts of Africa Kai Curry-Lindahl (Sweden), Jean there is a similar problem. Delacour (France), Sir Julian Huxley (UK), Phyllis Barclay-Smith (UK), Another SST Warning Lt. Col. C. L. Boyle (UK), Felipe Water and other chemicals released by Benavides (Peru), Finnur Gudmundsson SSTs in the upper atmosphere 'may (Iceland), Sir Landsborough Thomson partially destroy the protective shield of (UK), Prof. V. Puscariu (Rumania), stratospheric ozone', according to a D. L. Serventy (Australia), Col. Jack special panel convened by the En- Vincent (S. Africa), and Lord Hurcomb vironmental Studies Board of the (UK). National Academy of Sciences. Large fleets of SSTs, the panel PCB's in the Environment warned, could damage the atmosphere Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are so severely that lives would be lost now found throughout the world from exposure to ultraviolet radiation. ecosystem in quantities similar to those of DDE, a derivative of DDT. PCBs are known to be toxic to Orang-utan Captive Breeding mallard, bobwhite quail, red-winged With more than 500 orang-utans in blackbirds, starlings, cowbirds and captivity, the world's zoos have a grackles to much the same extent that large potential breeding stock. But DDT is. PCBs of high chlorine although the number of births and the content are more poisonous to birds, apparent birth rate have been in- those of low chlorine content more creasing, no living orang-utan is the poisonous to insects, according to a offspring of captive-born parents, report from the Patuxent Wildlife according to John Perry and Dana Lee Research Center, at Laurel, Horsemen in Zoologica. Maryland. Directory of Ornithologists The Resistant Insect World Nos. 71/73 of The Ring, the well Some 240 species of insects, including known bird-ringing periodical, take the ticks and mites, are now resistant to form of a directory of the world's DDT and other persistent pesticides. In ornithologists. Though by no means central California it now takes several complete—it omits, for instance, both hundred times the normal dose to kill the British ornithological FRS's— mosquitoes, including the encephalitis Index Omithologicorum is a useful first mosquito. Essentially therefore they are step towards a register of ornitholo- now uncontrollable by chemical means. gists, and can be had from 169

Norway Joins IUCN Gin Traps Finally Outlawed Norway is the 31st sovereign state to The gin trap, described by the Scott become a member of IUCN. Henderson Committee as 'a diabolical instrument' is now finally prohibited in More Whale Import Bans all parts of Great Britain. It was Canada and Australia have joined the already forbidden to use it for any United States and Britain in banning the animal in England and Wales, and for import of whalemeat and other any animal except foxes in Scotland, by-products. when on April 1, under the provisions of an Act of 1969, it also became illegal to use gin traps, or any GREAT BRITAIN other unapproved spring traps, against foxes in Scotland. Ten New AONBs The Countryside Commission Pole Traps Still Used proposes to schedule ten more Areas The pole trap, an extremely cruel of Outstanding Natural Beauty: Scilly device, was prohibited more than sixty Isles, North Pennines, Nidderdale years ago. Yet the Royal Society for Moors, Clwydian Range, Berwyn the Protection of Birds reports that it Mountains, High Weald, Cornish coast has found 130 pole traps on estates in (Rame Head and Camel estuary), Britain during the past two years. Northumberland coast (near Scottish border) and an extension to the existing Dedham Vale AONB in Suffolk. The Replacing Laboratory Animals Secretary of State for Wales has FRAME (the Fund for the Replace- rejected the Commission's proposal for ment of Animals in Medical a new national park in mid-Wales. Experiments) has set up an Information Retrieval Service at the National Lending Library for Science and PCBs in Grey Seals Technology at Boston Spa, Further analysis of the tissues of grey Yorks. It is intended to produce a seals from various parts of the British periodical-abstracting journal on coast show higher levels of PCBs alternatives to laboratory animals. than of organochlorines, and North Sea seals show greater concentrations than those from the north and west Trust Compensated coasts. Similar differences have also Essex Naturalists' Trust has obtained been noted in the organochlorine con- £2500 damages from a farmer whose tent offish from the two coasts. out-of-control straw-burning fire destroyed 15 acres of its Fingringhoe Wick reserve in September 1972. Poison Poaching of Salmon Gangs are said to be poaching The Otter Trust hundreds of salmon and trout from the Philip Wayre, owner of the Norfolk Tay and other Scottish rivers, and Wildlife Park at Great Witchingham, also from waters in other parts of Norfolk, is Hon. Director of the Otter Britain. They tip cans of cyanide into Trust, which he has just founded with the water, and often kill many more the aim of saving the world's 19 fish than they can take. In one species of otter. Although the East Suffolk instance a mile of the River Cothi in County Planning Committee approved the Carmarthenshire was poisoned and 120 Trust's plans to set up a head- salmon and trout killed. Despite quarters and otter breeding station on severe penalties, the poachers are said 60 acres at Raydon, near Hadleigh, to be clearing thousands of pounds, East Suffolk, the Department of the

Environment has called the application according to a reply by the Home in and has ordered a public inquiry. Office to a parliamentary question by The Trust has 21 otters of five Lord Hurcomb. The birds imported species waiting to be accommodated included 72 goshawks, 42 lugger there. falcons, 29 lanner falcons, 14 kestrels, 13 saker falcons and nine peregrines. Controlling Grey Squirrels The birds taken by licence in Britain An official order permitting the use of included 57 kestrels, 18 sparrowhawks, Warfarin to control the introduced 11 buzzards and three merlins. grey squirrel, which has become a serious pest of young hardwood Snowy Owls in Shetland plantations in England and Wales, has Britain's only breeding snowy owls come into force. The poison bait must made two nests on the Shetland be contained in a securely closed island of Fetlar this year. However hopper, and access to it must be there was only one male bird, and he solely through a narrow tunnel of was not able to pay enough defined dimensions. attention to the younger female, so that she lost her eggs to crows while away More Rare Insects feeding. The older female reared a Following its list of rare and brood of four. endangered species of British butterflies and moths, the Joint Committee for Golden Eaglet Dies the Conservation of British Insects has The only young golden eagle to hatch compiled similar lists for the dragonflies in England and Wales in 1973 died (Odonata) and crickets and grass- before fledging, according to the Royal hoppers (Orthoptera). Twelve dragon- Society for the Protection of Birds. flies are listed, including the scarce Its parents have nested successfully in ischnura Ischnura pumiho and two the Lake District since 1970. species which are confined to Norfolk, Coenagrion armatum and Aeshna New Wildfowl Trust Refuges isosceles. The ten endangered crickets The revised plans for the Wildfowl and grasshoppers include the mole Trust's Arundel Wildfowl Refuge, cricket, the field cricket and the wart- West Sussex, have been approved, and biter. it is hoped to open the grounds to visitors in October 1974. Autumn 1974 Foxes vs Pheasants is also the target date for opening Experiments conducted by the Game the Trust's Washington Wildfowl Conservancy and the British Field Reserve, Co. Durham. Sports Society have shown that pheasant stocks are not at all affected Wild Geese in Britain on shooting days only two days after The annual goose census for the the drawing of their coverts by fox- 1972/73 winter produced totals of hounds. Now that the myth that 68,000 greylags and 73,000 pinkfeet in pheasant coverts must on no account Britain. These were 4000 more ever be disturbed is on the way out— greylags and 8000 more pinkfeet further trials are planned—may we than in the previous census. The hope that game preservers will come to greylag population has more than accept that birdwatchers are even less doubled since 1960. of a disturbance than a pack of foxhounds? New Preservation Trust The Woodland Trust is a new organi- Bird of Prey Imports sation that aims to halt the loss of The number of birds of prey and owls broad-leaved trees and woodlands in imported into Britain in 1971 was 327, Britain by acquiring and managing and the number taken from the wild existing woodlands, and creating new in Great Britain under licence was 89, woods. It has been formed in Devon,

Transplanting the Vendace Death of an Estuary Several isolated lochs in Galloway are The estuary of the Arno, the river to be used to provide a refuge for which flows through Florence, is so the vendace Coregonus vandesius, one heavily polluted that no life survives in of Britain's rarest fish. At present it at all. The Pisa health office has vendace are only to be found in Mill ordered riparian landowners to install Loch, Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, effluent treatment plant, and are which is threatened by various kinds threatening to withdraw the licences of of human activity. Fry hatched from more than 300 restaurants if they do eggs derived from Mill Loch fish are not act soon. now being reared in captivity, and some will eventually be released in New Swedish Anti-Pollution Law Galloway. A new Act to control products that may endanger health and the environment, involving stricter regulations than in the EUROPE past, was approved in Sweden in April. A special body will scrutinise all new Inventory for Europe chemicals, and the National Environmental The Council for Europe Conference of Protection Board will ensure that the Environment Ministers, meeting at law is enforced. Vienna in March, included among its recommendations one for the establish- ment of a European inventory of protected or endangered countryside areas of international importance in the European region.

Threat to North Sea Mudflats Many industrial plants are being planned or built on the shores of the North Sea in Germany, the effluents of which are liable to be lethal to the fauna of numerous areas listed as of international importance for breeding seabirds. The German Section of ICBP has urged the examination by an independent body of experts of the ecological effects of the whole project, 'I've made its conditions as natural as possible!' and that absolute priority should be From Priroda, II (1972).

Poisons in Baltic Seals Birds Burned by Radio Transmitters Environmental poisons now represent Observations in both Britain and Norway the greatest threat to the declining show that birds are liable to suffer severe stocks of grey seals in the Baltic. burns in certain circumstances at high- Hunting and disturbance by pleasure power high-frequency (short-wave) trans- boats are no longer the greatest mitting stations. The injuries occur when dangers. A grey seal found recently on the birds approach the feeder lines with the south coast of Sweden had their legs extended preparatory to exceptionally high concentrations: alighting. An arc is then drawn 4.600 ppm DDT (the previous highest from the feeder and burns the bird's in a seal, in California, was 1000) legs. At some of these stations the staff and 2000 ppm PCBs. make systematic searches to find the birds and either treat them or destroy them. Moving a Marsh To preserve an important marshland Shooting Bewick's Swans biotope and at the same time enable Although Bewick's swan is totally the Zurich airport to expand, a protected throughout Europe, X-ray marsh has been moved a distance of examination of those caught at more than 300 metres by the Slimbridge shows that 31 per cent are Geobotanical Institute of the carrying shot in some part of their Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule. bodies. (Dr Geoffrey Matthews, The new site was excavated to a depth Scientific Director of the Wildfowl of 3.50 m, lined with loam and Trust, at a recent meeting of the Inter- filled with peat. A special engine then national Wildfowl Research Bureau). moved 2,500 m2 of topsoil with vegetation, including 25 orchids and 125 other rare plants. Respite for the Coto The Spanish Government has agreed, Spring Hunting Banned following representations by WWF, to Spring hunting of wildfowl and water- route a proposed tourist road not fowl has been banned throughout the along the coastal side of the Soviet Union, and all spring hunting Coto Donana reserve, but making a has been banned in the Ukraine, wide detour to the east of the reserve. Byelorussia. Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, It has also agreed to halt tourist Georgia and parts of the Russian development in the neighbourhood of Federation. As from 1973, the shooting the reserve. of woodcock in spring has been forbidden in Denmark. The protection Threat to Historic Site of the brent goose has also been The Crown Park, Uppsala, probably extended until 1977. the first nature reserve in Sweden—it was protected in 1773—is threatened Boycott of Italy by a motorway 40 m wide. It More than a million people in Europe contains a magnificent stand of old have signed a declaration that they Scots pine trees, and it was here that will boycott Italian holiday resorts as Linnaeus described the Scots pine long as the laws of Italy permit the Pinus sylvestris, Norway spruce Picea catching of song-birds. abies and juniper Juniperus communis.

Eagles and DDE Chemical studies have shown that Italy Afire DDE, a derivative of DDT, is most Fire destroys some 125,000 acres of probably the main factor responsible forest in Italy every year. This is for the severe decline in the repro- twice as much as is being ductive success of the white-tailed sea afforested or reafforested each year. In eagle in Schleswig-Holstein, where only 1971 nearly 200,000 acres were one bird was reared in each of the burned. A similar problem affects most years 1969-71. Mediterranean countries.

Elk in Moscow Sea Eagles and Peregrines in Sweden The number of elk and other wild A survey of white-tailed sea-eagles in animals has considerably increased in Sweden in 1972 estimated 49 pairs, the Moscow region in recent years. which managed to produce only eight Elk are protected and have lost their fledged young between them. No fewer fear of man, so that they often than 24 pairs attempted to breed but wander into the city from nearby failed. The peregrine falcon census in forests. One day early in May an Sweden in 1972 showed only 14-15 elk calf was browsing a shrubbery in a pairs. Of these, 11-12 nested front garden near a Moscow metro successfully, several pairs as a result of station, and another visited the their nests being guarded by naturalists. surrounds of a high-rise building on the river embankment near the city centre. New Low for Dutch Storks Both animals were taken back to the The Netherlands white stork population forest by lorry. plummeted to a new low in 1972. There were only six nests, rearing 15 young, compared with 12 and 29 in Birds of Prey in Finland 1971. Latest estimates of bird of prey stocks in Finland are peregrine 28 pairs, Tortoises in France osprey 900-1000 pairs, golden eagle About half a million tortoises are 23 pairs. Peregrine and golden eagle sold as pets every year in France, are still declining, or at least not according to a leading trader. This increasing. The goshawk population is compares with 185,000 imported into still relatively strong, despite consider- Britain in 1971, the last available year. able persecution.

Brown Bears in Finland NORTH AMERICA The present range of the brown bear in Finland covers a narrow zone on the Nixon Slashes Wildlife Budget eastern frontier in North Karelia and At least 26 units of the national Kainuu, together with eastern and cen- wildlife refuge system in 15 states face tral Lapland. Total numbers were major reductions in staffing and main- estimated in 1970-71 at some 150- tenance during 1973-74, under the 200. budget cuts proposed by the Nixon administration. Several of the refuges Wolves and Wolverines in the Far North thus scheduled for moth-balling provide Only seven wolves and 40 wolverines habitat for endangered species, includ- survive in the wild in Finland, ing the peregrine falcon, southern bald according to the Director of the eagle and alligator. Twenty-six Helsinki Zoo. A census in northern national wildlife refuges had to be Sweden in spring 1972 found no closed in 1973 because the US wolves and only 75 wolverines. Both Government failed to provide adequate species have been fully protected in funds. Sweden for years. Death of a River? A hydroelectric scheme threatens the Lynx in Switzerland destruction of Manitoba's last great Tracks of at least two lynx cubs have river, the Churchill, before its potential recently been seen in the Obwald value for recreation, habitation or canton in Switzerland, where two pairs enjoyment of wildlife and wilderness of adult lynx were released in 1970 are assessed, realised or even under- with the aid of a WWF grant. stood. The scheme would also remove Warnings from hunters of a feared the traditional independent livelihood of decimation of local roe deer have been local communities engaged in trapping proved wrong. and fishing.

California Seabird Breeding Failures New Endangered Species During the 1973 breeding season, Eight more animals are being added by several species of seabird failed to the Department of the Interior to the breed, in greater or less degree, in the list of endangered native wildlife: Gulf of California. Brown pelicans Utah prairie dog, northern Rocky nested at only 5-20 per cent of Mountain wolf, eastern cougar, Missis- their earlier numbers, and of those sippi sandhill crane, Puerto Rico which did nest, 50-95 per cent whip-poor-will, Santa Barbara song abandoned their nests or young at sparrow, desert slender salamander and various stages. Western gulls were Okaloosa darter. The eastern cougar only at 30-50 per cent of their normal was until recently believed extinct, but numbers, and Heermann's gulls failed has now been sighted on numerous to produce more than nest scrapes. occasions throughout the Elegant terns, Brandt's cormorants and Appalachians. Craveri's murrelet were also affected.

Whistling Swan Research Kentucky's Endangered Species Act Sparked off by an accident in which The State of Kentucky has passed its 17 passengers lost their lives when own Endangered Species Act, adding their aircraft collided with a migrating 39 species rare in Kentucky to the flock of whistling swans at 6000 ft federal list of endangered over Maryland, ecologists at Johns animals. Hopkins University have embarked on a large-scale study of swan move- ments. Swans are marked with Hunting from the Air coloured plastic neck collars, with Despite a new federal law which pro- letter and number combinations large hibits the use of aircraft to shoot enough to be read easily with a tele- wolves, the Alaska Department of Fish scope. Sightings to Dr W. J. L. Sladen, and Game has indicated that it in- Johns Hopkins University, 615 North tends to continue to issue permits for Wolfe St., Baltimore, Md, 21205. aerial wolf-hunting 'on a limited basis'. This practice is widely reprehended both by conservation groups and by a large segment of the Wildlife Food Sources Contaminated general public. Motor-car exhausts and wastes are contaminating important wildlife food sources along highways, according to Alaska Hunting Bans the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Since December 21, 1972, it has been in Maryland. Large amounts of lead, illegal under the Marine Mammal zinc, nickel and cadmium have been Protection Act to hunt polar bear or found in earthworms collected near walrus in Alaska. heavily travelled roads around Washington, D.C. Zinc comes from lubricating oil, lead from petrol and British Columbia and Falcons cadmium from tyres. In 1972 eight peregrine falcons were among 16 birds of prey taken in Endangered Species in Illinois British Columbia for breeding for A new law in Illinois prohibits the falconry purposes. In the ensuing importation of endangered species, uproar it emerged that the BC Con- including many of the cats, all croco- servation Department had never heard dilians, wolves and kit foxes, vicuna, of the International Council for Bird polar bears, and some sea turtles. Preservation, let alone its resolution on Offenders face a year in gaol and the peregrine. Later the Minister, who $1000 fines. A nine-member board, happens to be the son of a famous six of them naturalists, will oversee the American bird painter, rescinded the list, which includes all federally regulations under which the birds had protected species. been taken.

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.202.8, on 27 Sep 2021 at 16:15:11, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605300011480 176 Oryx Canada Bans Whaling a $500 reward for verified claims of Declining whale stocks in the north- information that is of substantial west Atlantic have resulted in an assistance in obtaining a conviction immediate ban on whaling off the for shooting a bald eagle. Claims to east coast of Canada, announced by N W F, 1412 16th St, NW, Washing- the Canadian Environment Minister ton, DC 20036. on December 20, 1972. Two whaling stations in Newfoundland and one in Nova Scotia are affected. The Exotic Fish take over in Florida two main species in the shore-based The black acara Cichlasoma whale fishery were fin and sei, for bimaculatum, escaped from home which record low quotas of 143 and 70 aquariums and fish farm dumps, now respectively had been allocated. The competes so successfully with native ban does not affect the catching of fish that it makes up 80 per cent of the pilot, minke and other small whales by fish biomass in some Florida canals. local residents for their own con- The African blue tilapia, Tilapia aurea, sumption. Canada is also to step up introduced to control aquatic vegeta- research on whaling. tion, has similarly replaced native fish to the extent of 98 per cent of the fish biomass in some eutrophic lakes in Golden eagles trapped Florida. The walking catfish has taken At least 200 golden eagles were killed over many alligator holes. The pike last winter in traps set for bobcats killi fish Belonesox belizanus preys on and coyotes in White Pine County, the mosquito fish which is useful for Nevada. A bill has been introduced mosquito control and has virtually into the state legislature to enable eliminated it in many canals. trapping to be regulated so as to prevent this happening again. Talking Turkey The National Wild Turkey Federation Wolf Bounty Almost Ended has been organised to promote wild With the abolition of the wolf bounty turkey conservation nationwide. It in Ontario last year, the Northwest includes sportsmen, conservationists Territories are the only Canadian and game biologists, and will publish the province still to use this outdated and Turkey Call Magazine. Inquiries to 112 discredited method of predator control. Pender St, Fredericksburg, Va 22401.

Snowmobiles Banned Michigan has zoned 16 state parks and Bird Mortality since Pesticides recreation areas for silent recreational An analysis of population trends purposes only. Snowmobiles and all among North American birds has other off-road vehicles are banned. The shown lower recruitment rates among hundred American companies manufac- brown pelicans, ospreys, and Cooper's, turing snowmobiles six years ago are red-shouldered and sparrow hawks. In now reduced to 40, and there may a Wildlife Research Report for the soon be many fewer. Lower profits Department of the Interior, Charles J. due to the cost of meeting safety and Henny showed that this reduced noise regulations are blamed. reproductive success was found among birds feeding on birds, reptiles, amphibians or fish, but not in those New Fur Seal Colony feeding primarily on mammals. The A hitherto unknown colony of 150 lowered reproductive success was also northern fur seals has been found off accompanied by a decrease in eggshell Point Conception in Southern Califor- thickness, a phenomenon generally nia. The rookery located four years attributed to the side effects of pesticide ago on San Miguel Island is thriving. residues.

Bald Eagle Reward Fences Kill Pronghorns The National Wildlife Federation offers Fences erected by users of public

land, federal land management agencies supposed competition with sheep; and and highway departments result in the the chinchilla, which is seriously deaths of thousands of pronghorn threatened with extinction. The rhea is antelopes each winter on public lands also severely reduced in numbers. in the west. In Wyoming, for instance, 2900 pronghorn, representing more Vandalism in Brazil than half the entire herd in the The Parque Municipal do Gama in the Chain Lakes area northwest of Federal District in Central Brazil Rawlings, died in the winter of 1971/ was almost inaccessible 12 or 15 years 72. Winter mortality in a heavily ago, but is now almost completely fenced area is four times that in a destroyed by crowds of bathers and fence-free area. The animals get picnickers. From ignorance people have entangled in woven wire fences, which ripped rare gesneriads from its are often put up to contain cattle. sandstone cliffs to wear in their hair, and lit fires with the branches of Monk Parakeets in the US endemic or little-known shrubs. Such a Populations of the monk parakeet botanically valuable site should never Myiopsiltacus monachus, an agricul- have been designated a public tural pest in southern South America, recreation area. Elsewhere in Brazil have become established in and around botanically valuable limestone outcrops New York. Some 200-300 are are being destroyed to make cement. believed to be living wild there. Sightings are also reported from 21 American 'Sportsmen' and Mexican other states, from Maine to Arizona. Wildlife Some of these birds are believed to So-called sportsmen from the United originate from deliberate mass releases. States continue to violate the game Since 1972 their import into the United laws of Mexico. Agents of the U.S. States has been forbidden for health Government recently apprehended 125 people on charges of illegal hunting in north-eastern Mexico. Most cases were of trying to import whitewing LATIN AMERICA and mourning doves in excess of limits. Others were for taking doves Colombia's New Law and quail out of season in the Rio A new law in Colombia establishes a Grande Valley. close season for non-human primates, monkeys and marmosets, and prohibits any commercial trade in them. AFRICA Inderena, the Colombian wildlife authority, may only license the capture The Dam and the Canal of monkeys and marmosets if they are The flow of water in the Suez destined either for scientific investiga- Canal may have been changed, perhaps tions or for museums and zoos, and permanently, by the construction of the they must satisfy themselves that the Aswan Dam, Egyptian oceanographers wild stocks are not being endangered. believe. The dam holds back great quantities of water that would Chile's Threatened Mammals normally flow into the Mediterranean. A survey of the endangered wildlife of Instead of flowing strongly northwards Chile, by workers under Professor for half the year and less strongly Richard Taber of the University of southwards for the other half, the Washington, Seattle, shows that many current in the Canal now appears to mammals are severely reduced in popu- flow weakly northwards for the whole lation. These include the huemul deer, year. Already a species of plankton, which appears on Chile's national Ceratium egyptiacum, which used to crest, now down to a few hundred; be confined to the Red Sea, is the guanaco, which is widely persecuted migrating northwards towards the and much reduced, largely because of its Mediterranean.

springbok and ostrich, and collectors and traders ruthlessly dug up rare plants. The tremendous flocks of migratory birds at Sandwich Harbour were disturbed, spawning fish were netted, and the seal reserve at Cape Cross interfered with. Many newborn seal pups fled into the sea before they could swim and were drowned.

A Giant Reserve The world's largest nature reserve, straddling three countries, will be created shortly, according to a state- ment by the Portuguese authorities in Mozambique. It will consist of the Kruger National Park in the Trans- Pollution in Zambia vaal, South Africa (1,817,000 ha), the Industrial pollution is by no means Gorongosa National Park in confined to the developed countries, Mozambique (553,000 ha), and but is particularly bad in, for instance, Gona-re-zhou Game Reserve in Zambia, where there is no effective Rhodesia (149,600 ha). control of effluent into either the air or the rivers, including municipal water Black Rhinos to Rhodesia supplies. There is a large-scale escape The 81 black rhinoceroses translocated of particles of copper, sulphur and from the Zambesi valley, where they cement into the atmosphere. Firms were threatened by poachers, to the are establishing factories in un- Gona-re-Zhou Game Reserve in developed countries in order to escape Rhodesia, now appear to have environmental controls at home. established themselves. Most animals did not move more than about 18 Meeting in Portuguese Africa kilometres from their release point. At In November 1972 more than a hun- least seven calves have been born. dred delegates from Angola, 66 Lichtenstein's hartebeeste from Mozambique and Portugal met at Sa Mozambique have also been trans- da Bandeiro, Angola, for the first con- located to Gona-re-Zhou. ference for the study of wildlife and nature conservation problems in Portuguese overseas territories. It was Right Whales not Yet Right unanimously agreed to expel all illegal There are estimated to be about 180 squatters from Quicama National southern right whales off the South Park, Angola, to establish a special African coast, and perhaps 1000 in the reserve for gorilla and chimpanzee in whole southern hemisphere. This, after Cabinda, Angola, and to create both nearly forty years of protection, indi- marine parks and autonomous wildlife cates how low the stock had fallen departments in both Angola and when whaling ceased in 1935. Mozambique. Rarest Reptile Tourist Devastation in SW Africa The Madagascan tortoise Testudo A tarred road has brought an yniphora may be the world's 'avalanche of visitors' to the hitherto rarest reptile. Only 10 individuals are remote and unspoiled Namib Desert believed to survive in the wild, and West Coast of South West Africa, according to Dr. C. P. Blanc of according to Bernabe de la Vat, the Montpellier, all in the Soalala-Baly territory's Director of Nature Con- Bay area. An unknown number are in servation and Tourism. Poachers captivity, since local folklore credits the decimated the huge herds of gemsbok, animal with the power to keep

chickens disease-free. Dr Blanc, who Exports from Indonesia has just finished a survey sponsored New regulations in Indonesia forbid the by IUCN/WWF, calls for the urgent catching, owning, transporting or creation of a reserve at Cape Soalala, export of rhinoceroses, orang-utans, to which animals found in captivity tapirs, Komodo dragons and birds of could be transferred. paradise except under permit from the Minister of Agriculture. Permits for Red Hot Pokers Endangered other kinds of protected animals are Several species of red hot poker granted by the Director of Forestry. Kniphofia, plants of the Lily Family endemic to South Africa, are currently threatened by loss of habitat. Poaching Rhino in Nepal K. pauciflora may already be Seven men have each been sentenced to extinct, as its two original known sites three years in gaol for attempting are completely built up. K. rooperi, to kill a rhino in the Chitawan once common along the coast near National Park, Nepal. The reward of East London, is now restricted to a 2000 Rs paid to the informer who narrow zone a few miles wide. K. told the authorities of this incident splendida is protected in a special came from a small grant from the reserve in the Transvaal, at Fauna Preservation Society to the Vertroosting near Sabie. Nepal Game Department.

ASIA Tamaraws Increase Since the Tamaraw Conservation Pro- A Yenisei Pipeline gram was set up in the Philippines in An oil pipeline is being built 1969, the number of animals in the across the bed of the River Yenisei, three tamaraw reserves has increased to bring oil from the recently by about one-third, and now stands at discovered deposits in western Siberia 173. There are still some animals to the industrial East. The bureaucrats outside the reserves, but their manage things more easily in Russia! number is unknown.

Javan Rhinos Increase Wild Ass Studbook The latest estimate of the Javan The studbook for Asian wild asses rhino population of the Udjung Kulon Equus hemionus kept by the East reserve in western Java, the animal's Berlin Zoo shows that there are at sole remaining known locality, is 40- present in zoos world-wide 141 kulans 48, including at least one very small from USSR and 99 onagers from calf. This represents a great increase Iran. Onagers are held by nine from the estimate of under 30 only a North American zoos and kulans by few years ago. four, including a pair at Havana.

Oldest Trees With Sri Lanka's excellent record of wildlife conservation, it is not sur- prising to find there the world's oldest trees with a recorded history. These are the great bodhi Ficus reli- giosa trees, which were planted in the 3rd century B.C., at the time when King Devanampiyatissa was converted Pygmy hog, reared by Mrs Robin to Buddhism. The actual trees survive Wrangham in Assam, the first of at Kataragama, Mihintale and this rare species known to have been Isurumuniya, and are still greatly ven- raised in captivity erated by Buddhists.

Sable Census in Siberia New Wildlife Authority Urged The USSR is to census the sables of A Select Committee of the House of the Siberian tundra over the next two Representatives has urged that the years, as a first step to gauging the Commonwealth Government should threat to this fur-bearing mustelid from establish a national wildlife conserva- poaching and black-market dealings. tion authority in Australia. Among its functions would be to monitor the Conservation Moves in USSR status of endangered species, and to Large-scale work to improve the develop uniform policies on the natural environment is under way in commercial exploitation of wildlife. the Soviet Union, including The Committee also urged that the measures to prevent the pollution Great Barrier Reef should be set aside of the Caspian and the Volga and as a marine national park and Ural river basins, and for the con- safeguarded against mineral exploitation. servation and rational use of Lake Baikal. Many steps to conserve water Endangered Australian Plants and reduce atmospheric pollution have In four out of the six Australian also been taken. A scientific and tech- states (New South Wales, Queensland, nical council on problems of environ- Victoria and Western Australia), mental protection and rational use of 26 native plant species are extinct, natural resources has been set up under 82 endangered, and 826 rare or the USSR Committee for Science and extremely localised, nearly half of Technology, to oversee this whole which are known only from the original field. collection.

Bird Protection in Israel Mangrove Conservation Call The Israel Nature Reserves Authority In the seventh of its Viewpoint pamph- has completely prohibited the netting of lets, Mangroves and Man, (10c, from migratory quail along the seashores P.O.Box 142, Carlton, Victoria, 3053), of northern Sinai, and has also the Australian Conservation Founda- forbidden the shooting of duck, except tion draws attention to the lack of for mallard, teal, garganey, shoveler, knowledge of mangrove ecology, and pochard and tufted duck. To help calls for urgent surveying of and re- hunters recognise the ducks they are search into Australian mangrove allowed to shoot, a special colour swamps, with a view to their proper poster has been produced. conservation. Already mangroves have disappeared from many parts of the Cleaning the Caspian Australian coast. The pollution of the Caspian Sea continues to be a source of grave con- Takahe Rescue Plan cern to Soviet ecologists. Large amounts Alarmed by the continuing decline in of petroleum products, phenols, copper, the takahe, a bird once believed zinc and other metals, and untreated extinct, New Zealand scientists are to sewage are still finding their way into it attempt to establish a colony on an

offshore island. When it was refound in Dumping in the Atlantic 1948, there were an estimated 250-260 Two controversial permits to dump 120 pairs in its isolated high-altitude valley million tons of sulphuric acid wastes in the Southern Alps, but by 1970 and 75 million gallons of sewage numbers were down to between 84 and sludge off the coast of Delaware were 110 pairs. issued by the Environmental Protec- tional Agency on April 23, the day Beetle Invades Samoa before the permit system of the 1972 A beetle which is a major pest of Marine Protection Act came into force. palms, Brontispa longissima, has These permits allow the E.I.duPont de recently been found to be infesting five Nemours Company and the City of miles of the coastline of American Philadelphia to continue dumping their Samoa. It is believed to have been respective wastes into the Atlantic. introduced from Tahiti on an oil tanker. It is hoped to undertake Atlantic Salmon Agreement biological control by obtaining The Danish Parliament, after lengthy parasites from Indonesia or the Philip- debate, has ratified the ICNAF pines. regulation which embodies the agreement between Denmark and the United Antarctic 'Wolf Pack? States to phase out the high-seas In the March A udubon Dr Roger Greenland fishery for Atlantic salmon Tory Peterson draws attention to the by 1976. The agreement also limits the possible danger of a 'wolf pack catch by Greenlanders inside their ter- becoming established in Antarctica, as ritorial water to 1100 metric tons a a result of husky dogs escaping. More year. than one instance is known of huskies living through the Antarctic winter in a NEW NATIONAL PARKS feral state, and naturalists have a The second national park of West nightmare of a breeding stock of these 2 dogs becoming established and exter- Germany will be an area of 1400 km minating the penguin colonies on just south of the Danish border, to be which they would have to feed. known as the North Frisian Waddensee Huskies, it is felt, are a dangerous National Park. It contains many fine anachronism in the modern Antarctic. dune areas and important seabird colonies. Thought for the Day Grandfather raises sheep Hungary is to create a national park The son raises goats for the surviving 52,000 acres of the The grandson raises nothing. puszta, the Hungarian steppe. (Ibn-e-Khuldun) Venezuela's newest national park is the Archipelago Los Roques, a series THE OCEANS of islands and coral reefs in the International Ocean Institute Caribbean. As a result of the Pacem in Maribus meetings in Malta, the International Zambia has declared its 18th Ocean Institute has been set up at national park, the 45,000-acre former the Royal University of Malta. It aims Blue Lagoon cattle ranch, in the Kafue to promote international co-operation Flats on the north side of the Kafue in ocean exploration and monitoring, river. It has a large population of the with trans-national management of local antelope Kobus lechwe ocean resources and uses. It will not kafuensis. itself conduct research, but will develop facilities for visiting scientists. It will also provide an information service on NEW NATURE RESERVES ocean policy research and ocean use The Nature Conservancy is to establish trends and developments. Chaddesley Woods, largely oakwood

but with a section planted to conifers, miles north of Swindon; and Morgans as a national nature reserve. The woods Mill, 3y miles north of Devizes, a cover 246 acres and lie between Broms- downland site famous for its orchids, grove and Kidderminster, Worcester- including the marsh helleborine in its shire. only known downland habitat in Britain. North Meadow, Cricklade, Wilts is the Nature Conservancy's first national Treswell Wood, 118 acres of oak nature reserve for meadow grassland. ash near Retford, is the Notts Trust's The 86 acres of old pasture are noted first wholly owned reserve. for the abundance of fritillaries. The Conservancy has also added 59 The latest acquisitions of the acres of intertidal mudflats to its Swedish Nature Conservancy Fund are Fageludden, close to the important Walberswick national nature reserve in waterfowl lake of Hornborgasjon, and Suffolk. Sippmanne, a stretch of unspoiled Two new national nature reserves in sandstone beach of geological interest Scotland: Gualinn in Sutherland, 6232 at the southern end of Gotland. acres of mountain and bog alongside the River Dionard, including the The 1450-acre Big Creek Marsh on northeast cliffs and spurs of Foinaven; Lake Erie, near Port Rowan, and Morrone Birk-Wood, Ontario, has been bought by the Aberdeenshire, 225 acres of birch and Canadian Government as a new juniper woodland near Braemar. national wildlife area. It is a well known wildfowl resort. BBONT (Berks, Bucks & Oxon Naturalists' Trust) is negotiating for a A forest products company has new reserve at Hook Norton, in North presented the US Nature Conservancy Oxon. It will consist of 20 acres of with its largest gift ever, 50,000 acres of disused railway cutting, whose banks the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia include both limestone grassland and and North Carolina. This represents young oakwood. one-fifth of the whole swamp area.

Four new woodland reserves are New nature reserves in Venezuela: being negotiated by the Brecknock Santa Ana Mountain, an isolated County Naturalists' Trust: Nant Sere, mountain in the north-west; Cuare, a 42 acres on the northern slopes of the wildlife refuge for flamingos and Brecon Beacons; Cwm Oergwm, 20 roseate spoonbills, on the north-east acres in a parallel valley; Pwll-y- coast; and the Island of Birds, with Wrach, 20 acres in a deep dingle in important seabird and green turtle the Enig valley near Talgarth; and breeding populations. Llwyn Barried, eight acres on the Old Red Sandstone near Llanigon. Burma has declared four new wildlife sanctuaries. The two most The addition of 480 acres, by important are Kyatthin in the Upper agreement with the owners, to the Chindwin Forest Division, which con- Scottish Wildlife Trust's Loch Fleet tains a small group of Sumatran reserve on the east coast of Sutherland rhino, and Kyauk-pan-daung in the brings its acreage to 1750, which, Chin Hills FD, with serow and goral combined with the adjacent Mount (cf. Oryx III, p. 97). Alderwoods national nature reserve, makes the whole area one of the most important reserves on the east coast of The municipality of Bombay is to Scotland. designate the Mahim Creek, situated within its boundaries, as a bird Two new reserves of the Wiltshire sanctuary. Trust: Red Lodge, a small portion of the deciduous Red Lodge Wood, five Three islands in the north-west of the

Marquesas group, Eiao, He de Sable Anthony J. Mence, Principal of the and Hatutaa have been protected by Mweka College of African Wildlife France under the Islands for Science Management in Tanzania and a former programme. Hatutaa is the only sizeable head of the Tanganyika Game island still undisturbed in the central Department, has been appointed Pacific dry zone. Executive Officer of the IUCN Sur- vival Service Commission, in succes- Four nature reserves are proposed in sion to Miss Moira Warland, who the New Hebrides: Reef Island, the resigned. only coral atoll in the archipelago; Duck Lake, an important wetland on Ronald T. Reuther, formerly Direc- Efate; a kauri forest sanctuary on tor of San Francisco Zoo, has Erromango, for some fine stands of the become Director of Philadelphia Zoo, endemic kauri Agathis obtusa and and also Chairman of the Legislative three acres at Malapoa Point on Efate, Committee of the American where a botanical and ornithological Association of Zoological Parks and garden will be laid out. Aquariums.

Changes at the Wildfowl Trust: Brigadier 'Tim' Sparrow retired in PERSONALIA April after 12 years as Controller, and is succeeded by Brigadier Stephen Dr Jan Cerovsky, Executive Officer of Goodall, lately Commandant of the the IUCN Education Commission, has Royal School of Military Engineering. returned to Czechoslovakia, where he 'Tommy' Johnstone retired at the end formerly occupied leading conservation of 1972 after 26 years with the posts. Trust, most of them as Curator.

Jean Dorst, President of next year's International Ornithological Congress, and a Vice-Chairman of the Survival OBITUARY Service Commission of IUCN, has Edgar Barclay, leading British been elected a member of the authority on the deer of the world, Academie des Sciences in Paris. died on March 17.

On being elected President of the Lord Howick of Glendale, best known National Rifle Association, Dr C. R. as Governor of Kenya during the ('Pink') Gutermuth has retired as Mau-Mau period of the 1950s, but President of the US National Appeal of latterly Chairman of the Nature WWF, and been elected Hon. Life Conservancy, died as a result of an President. accident in March. He was also Barbara Harrisson has been awarded President of the British Trust for an honorary DSc by Tulane Conservation Volunteers. University, New Orleans, 'in recogni- tion of her pioneering and continued Ivan T. Sanderson, the well known effort to promote the conservation of naturalist and author of 15 books non-human primates in their natural about wildlife, has died. habitats'. Mrs Harrisson also won one of the ten American Motors con- Alexander Sprunt Jr, well-known servation awards presented to non- ornithologist and conservationist, who professional conservationists in 1973. was a lecturer and naturalist for the National Audubon Society for 27 Ambassador Frank L. Kellogg has years, died at his home at Charleston, been elected President of WWF SC, on January 3. His son, USA, in succession to C. R. Alexander Sprunt IV, is NAS's ('Pink') Gutermuth. present Research Director.