The Northern race of the Square-lipped (White) Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) occurs in small numbers west of the Albert Nile in Uganda (in the West Nile and West Madi districts); in the N.E. Congo (where, at least until June, 1960, it was most numerous in the Garamba National Park); in the S.W. Sudan (in the Nimule National Park and elsewhere), and in Ubangi Shani.

In the past, the brown bear was found in all the forested mountain regions of Bulgaria. This is known from written and oral evidence, and there are places with names including the word “bear” where no bears have been seen for a long time. The bear conflicted with the interests of man; it did enough damage to agriculture to be condemned as a pest, and its extermination was encouraged.

A long required and most urgent need in the education of the “Children of the Country” is being made possible by the generosity and far-sightedness of the Ndola Lottery Board Committee. They have made a grant of £5,000 to our Game Preservation and Hunting Association for the construction of a permanent camp in the Kafue National Park.

The most exciting news that ever reached my ears came when the president of our Young Farmers' Club announced that the national organizer had invited two boys from the Club to visit Kafue National Park. I was even more excited when I knew that I was one of the two. It took what seemed to me five years, but was actually five weeks, for the day of departure to come.

The evacuation of Tristan da Cunha following the volcanic eruption of 9th October, 1961, has again raised the question of safeguarding one of the richest reservoirs of oceanic wildlife left in the world.

The Leathery Turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, the largest living Chelonian, is a creature of great antiquity—a survival from the time of the dinosaurs. It is the only representative of the suborder Athecae and is distinguished from other turtles by the absence of a true shell covered by large plates; it has instead a mosaic of small bony platelets embedded in its skin.

Most of the wild life management and research problems in East Africa to-day are concerned with widespread populations of varied species of animals distributed over vast areas of usually roadless terrain. In such conditions it is difficult, uneconomic and time consuming to operate entirely from the ground, and a light aircraft, correctly used, can be of great value.

In October, 1959, Karl W. Kenyon, Research Biologist of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the writers, spent three weeks in North Borneo observing wild primates. During this brief period, we questioned both European and native residents of the Colony on the relative abundance of orang-utans (Pongo pygmaeus) in various sectors, and we carefully recorded such indications as we ourselves noted. Although our own encounters with wild orang-utans were limited, we saw numerous nests, many of recent construction. The results of our inquiries and observations were encouraging enough for us to conclude that the orang in North Borneo is, for the present, in no danger of extinction and that it survives in moderate numbers wherever suitable habitat exists. This in itself should offer sufficient inducement to afford every possible sort of protection to the North Bornean survivors of a species that, elsewhere within its comparatively limited range, is becoming scarce or has already disappeared altogether.

Seventy years ago the population of Southern Rhodesia was only about 500,000. The inhabitants occupied the land according to their tribal customs, and were mainly hunters and pastoralists. In those days the whole country abounded with wild life. Then western civilization came to the country, bringing with it advanced agricultural techniques, medical science and the western system of law. Within thirty years vast changes and development took place. The indigenous population trebled: industries, particularly mining, sprang up all over the country and around these industries towns were built with the resultant network of road and rail communications. But, following the pattern of development seen in so many countries, Rhodesia's natural resources were being squandered and destroyed, in some cases through lack of knowledge, in others wantonly. Nevertheless, even in the 1920's a few people, supported by the Government, did make some provision for the conservation of wild life and in 1927 the first game reserve was established at Wankie. By the 1930's, however, it was obvious that other resources, particularly the soil, were being lost at an alarming rate. Again a few far-sighted people, led by Water Court Judge Mcllwaine, stirred up public opinion, the Governor appointing a commission of enquiry into the extent to which the natural resources were being squandered. The outcome of this enquiry was the establishment of the Natural Resources Board, constituted by Act of Parliament which, in essence, recognized the Board as the public trustee for the natural resources of the country. The Board has extremely wide powers and can give orders to the owners, occupiers or users of any land to adopt such measures as it may deem necessary for the conservation and protection of the resources. Whilst an appeal to the court against such orders is provided for, the Board relies upon persuasion rather than compulsion and depends upon the goodwill and common-sense of the people to ensure a future both for themselves and for those who are to follow.

Schemes for the preservation of fauna in Kenya, Tanganyika, and Uganda are much to the fore at the present time, and quite rightly so, but we would like to advance the claims of N'gamiland as being one of the finest places of them all where the wild life of Africa may yet be found in its almost pristine state, rivalling that of N'gorongoza, the Serengeti Plains and the Ngorongoro Crater. We plead also the urgent need for the formation of a society dedicated to the protection of the fauna in support of an understaffed and overworked Game Department.

Both the black stork (Ciconia nigra) and the white stork (Ciconia ciconia) are found in Portugal. The black stork is much the rarer and more local, being found in steep, hot places in the eastern and north-eastern provinces.

The vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) family Camelidae, inhabits the high pastoral zone, or puna, of the central Andes for a distance of 1,300 miles, from latitude 10° S to 29° S. The puna consists of high, rolling, semi-arid grasslands, barren pampas, and volcanic peaks, above the limit of cultivated crops. Vicuñas occur from the upper limit of vegetation, at about 16,000 feet, down to 12,000 feet, but they are common only at sites above 14,000 feet.

In Borneo and the surrounding islands competition by introduced faunas has not proved a significant factor affecting the survival of endemic species. Without exception, any threat has, in the past century and more, been invariably and directly attributable to human agency. Man, for instance, is the only predator of the Sumatran rhinoceros, Orang-utan, Clouded leopard, Argus and Bulwer's pheasant, White-bellied Sea-eagle and Island Megapode, which are among the forms most severely threatened at the moment.

N'gamiland is the native reserve of the Batawana tribe, which has at its head Mahumahati Moremi, the Queen Regent. The headquarters of both the native and of the British administration is at Maun, situated in the Okavango Swamps area. No European is allowed to own property in N'gamiland, and any trading store run by Europeans is leased from the tribe. Queen Moremi has the last say on all matters. There is no known mineral wealth in N'gamiland.

On the 15th of September, 1835, a young naturalist landed on Chatham, the most easterly island of the Galapagos archipelago: he was none other than Charles Darwin, and it was there he first came into contact with the facts over which he pondered during the immortal voyage of the Beagle and which his genius translated into theories on evolution.