The re-discovery of the pygmy hog Sus salvanius in some numbers in the Himalayan foothills of Assam this year was an exciting event in which the members of the FPS Indian tour participated: they obtained what may be the first photographs ever taken of this diminutive rare animal. When in April fourteen were captured as well as one hispid hare (probably much more endangered), and held on tea estates in Assam the FPS sent an investigator, Mr Jeremy Mallinson, to report. The following account is largely based on his report.

The African continent is so productive it could have doubled the world's meat production today if there had been proper wildlife management over the last fifty years. But European man has brought the wild animals to the verge of extinction for the sake of his own unsuitable domestic animals, notably the cow. Today there are signs of change, with farmers looking to the ranching of wild animals, and national parks selling meat from animals that have to be culled. But time is short. The increasing human population is leading rapidly to the complete disappearance of wildlife outside national parks, and the author believes that today every large mammal species is in danger. The only hope for wildlife lies in its utilisation, and the implications of this will be the subject of a second article in the next Oryx.

Last year the Indian Government imposed a total ban on the export of tiger and leopard skins, and goods made from such skins. Also all the Indian states banned tiger shooting — none too soon — and possibly too late, for the latest census figures suggest that tigers may now have dropped as low as 1500 for the whole of India. In this article, written in the first place for the Junior Statesman in India, Anne Wright, our FPS correspondent in India and a member of the Cat Group of the Survival Service Commission, who lives hi Calcutta, describes what she saw on several visits to the back streets of Calcutta. This explains one of the biggest drams on tigers and leopards in India.

‘The most brightly coloured of all living mammals, an intense shimmering golden yellow’, is Osman Hill's description of the golden lion marmoset Leontideus rosalia, one of three closely related species restricted to Brazil (the others are chrysopygus and chrysomelas). Once they were widely distributed in the coastal forests; today they are reduced to small remnants, two of them at least with a very precarious future. John Perry, Chairman of the Survival Service Commission’s Zoo Group and Secretary of WAPT (Wild Animal Propagation Trust) in the USA, reports here on their status following his recent visit to Brazil.

The Gorongoza Game Reserve in Northern Mozambique is among the finest in the world, combining beauty of terrain with large numbers of birds and mammals in astonishing variety. About two miles from the camp is a flat treeless plain, some three miles across, flooded in the rainy season by the sluggish Pungwe river. Here some months ago I estimated well over 1000 animals of twelve species, with elephant, buffalo and wildebeest predominating, but strangely mixed.

The James’s or lesser Andean flamingo Phoenicoparrus jamesi is undoubtedly the world’s rarest flamingo. Very little is known of its habits, status or distribution, mainly because of the extreme isolation of its usual haunts in the high semi-desert wilderness region of the southern Bolivian Andes. The birds have never been recorded below 9000 feet.

A survey has been carried out on the status of bats in Britain. Of the 14 species, the status of two, the greater horseshoe and mouse-eared bats, is precarious. The survival of these and other cavernicolous species depends on the availability of underground roosts, many of which are being destroyed, or rendered uninhabitable by extensive disturbance during hibernation. Where such disturbance is prevented by a grille at the cave entrance, the number of bats using the roost increases. There is a trade in cave-dwelling bats for museums, schools and research. Large numbers of pipistrelles and other species are killed each year in buildings. In many cases, the slaughter is fruitless because the roost is subsequently reoccupied. Ignorance and fear of bats is widespread among members of the public. With the decrease in deciduous trees, fewer roosts are available for tree-dwelling species.

Colombia has a wealth of wildlife – including endangered species such as spectacled bear, mountain tapir, pudu and condor – a lot of still unexplored country, an impressive list of national parks and reserves, and an active national parks department. But there are many threats: a rapidly increasing population, haphazard settlement (with shifting ‘slash and burn’ cultivation), the increasing accessibility of formerly remote areas, the profitable trade in wild animals, and the lack of public interest in and support for conservation. Roger Perry has spent much time in South America, especially Colombia, and is a former Director of the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands.