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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS· studies of the food of fIShes. J. tJ1Iim. Ecol. 19: 36-58. Grateful acknowledgement is made of tho financial MARAIS, J f K 1976. Comparative studies on the assistance given by the Department of Planning and nutritional ecology of mullet in the Swartkops Environment. and the University of Port Elizabeth. Estuary. Ph.D. thesis. University of Port Eliza­ The Department of Nature Conservation of the beth, Port Elizabeth. Cape is thanked for authorizing the use of gill nets. SMITH, J L B 1950. POmlldasys operculare and the South African seas. AM. Mag. nat. Hilt. (12) 3: REfERENCES 778-785. SMITH, J L B 1961. The spotted grunters of Africa. BLABER, S J M 1973. The ecology of juvenile Fld. Tide, 3: 16-17. Rhabdosargus holubi (Steindachner) (Teleostei: WALLACE, J H 1975. Bioiogy and ecology of the Sparidae). Ph.D. thesis, Rhodes University. Gra­ estuarine fishes of the east coast of South Africa. hamstown. Ph.D. thesis, University of Natal. Pietermaritz­ fISH, G R 195 I. Digestion in Ti!apill esculenta. burg. Nature, Lond. 167: 900-901. WINDELL, J T 1971. Food analysis and rate of HYNES, H B N 1950. The food of freshwater digestion. In Methods for assessment offllh pro­ sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatw and Pygos­ duction in fresh waters, ed. W E Ricker. IBP tew pungitiw), with a review of methods used in Handb. 3: 1-345.

. ) 0 1 0 2 d e THE HIMALAYAN TAHR ON was sent to the Groote Schuur Zoo by me from the t a National Zoological Gardens in Pretoria. Either d T ABLE MOUNTAIN ( these animals, or some of their progeny, escaped r e from that zoo resulting in their rapid increase in h s i R BIGALKE (Sen.) l Table Mountain at the cost of its flora. Although b 185 Alexander St., Pretorill u considerable dllmage has already been done to the P montane vegetation, it is to be hoped that the steps e h Accepted: May 1977 t now being taken to eradicate the tahrs will not be

y relaxed until the o\)ject has been attained. b

d It is seldom possible to state with any degree of Like the klipspringer, in earlier times a common e t accuracy when species of exotic animals were little antelope on Table Mountain, the tahr is an n a liberated or found their way as escapees into foreign agile climber and jumper in rocky terrain. At Groote r g environments. But in the case of the Himalayan Schuur the animals were obviously not so securely e c

n tahrs on Table Mountain, the elimination of which housed that they could not escape. Their rapid e c is now being seriously tackled, it is possible to state

i increase in numbers shows that they fouJld Table l

r where the animals came from. On 2 September 1935 Mountain at least as favourable an environment as e d a pair of Himalayan tahrs (Hem/tragus jem!aicw) their normal home in the Himalayan mountains. n u y a w e t a G t e n i b a S y b d e c u d o r p e R