The Tragic History of a Once Great Southern African Fauna Spinage, Clive. creator author. aut http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut SpringerLink (Online service) text sz 2024 1st ed. 2024. monographic eng

electronic

electronic resource

access XIV, 171 p. 36 illus., 27 illus. in color. online resource. Quoting contemporary accounts from hunters, missionaries and traders from the early nineteenth century onwards, this book illustrates the ecology of the country as it was emphasizing its rich large mammal fauna, its decline from increasing aridity of the country, it destruction by hunters, by disease, and most importantly, destruction of its vast herds, notably of wildebeest, due to the developing beef export economy and the erection of veterinary cordon fences depriving the large game of migration routes in times of drought. Once possessing one of the greatest animal displacements in Africa, with huge migrations of antelope, this book underlines the reality that the fauna of Botswana today is but a tiny remnant of what was perhaps once one of the the greatest spectacles of big game on earth. It shows how the decline came about -- and the controls exercised by tribal chiefs illustrating the indigenous peoples’ attitudes, and eventual protective measures both tribal and statutory. Whereas the pessimistic predictions of extinction at the end of the nineteenth century have happily not come true, nonetheless, the continued existence of this once great fauna is increasingly threatened by climate change threatening an already fragile balance, and human population increase with its increasing economic demands and changes in land use. The study fills a gap in the literature of African wildlife conservation and is distinctive by drawing upon a rich historical background. Background to Big Game -- Impressions Good and Bad -- The Hunting Holocaust -- Requiem for the Rhino -- The Elephant in Botswana -- Demise of the Kalahari’s Great Herds -- Disease and Death -- The Expiring Kalahari -- They Had in Mind their Children -- Vanished are these Glories -- Appendices. by Clive Spinage. Conservation biology Ecology  Zoology Animal migration Biodiversity Vertebrates Applied ecology Conservation Biology Zoology Animal Migration Biodiversity Vertebrate Zoology Applied Ecology QH75-77 QH540-549.5 9783031600333 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60033-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60033-3 240613 20251030112311.0 978-3-031-60033-3