It seems to me that the game that brings the highest trophy dollars could be brought back to wild areas where they where once found. Protect them untill they reach a level where they could sustain their numbers and become a valuable source of income for the people. I am wondering if this has been done for high end plains game like roan & sable. I have head of translocating ele and the high cost associated with repatriation. Are there other animals that could be moved to empty areas to establish viable herds?

kaprota,

What you mentioned is in fact the way many have done. Unfortunately [at least in South Africa] some "introduced" high-value species like buffalo, nyala, roan and sable, to just mention a few, into areas where they never naturally occurred. All sorts of trouble resulted, including the development and growth of canned hunting, mostly for lion, but also for the other species.

Unfortunately "empty wild areas" are becoming far and few.
We can only hope the private game propertys through out Africa can outlast the land grabs that are damageing great game areas of Africa.
ozhunter

Ozhunter is right. The complications (human encroachment, habitat modification/loss, poaching, cattle, e.g. introduction of competing species, etc.) probably still exist and in most cases have gotten worst. "Empty areas" are a wonderful concept but unfortunately not realistic and only very rarely occur anywhere in the world.

Kyler

It just shows how much change in eco-systems can take place due to human interference in nature.
Hence the establishment of game species in areas where these same species never occurred naturally before.

At the recent Thabazimbi Game Show in the Limpopo province the well known Dr Wilhelm Schack pointed out that in the Bushveld areas in this and other provinces the number of trees per hectare increased over the past 150 years from 400 trees per hectare to the current 10 000 trees per hectare.

An example of bush thickness on a Limpopo province cattle farm.


He pointed out that it came about because of cattle farming - utilizing only the grass - giving bushes and trees the opportunity to invade the land, that the Bushveld areas in all these provinces in SA should now be used for game farming and not cattle. Game utilize both grass and bushes/shrubs which gives much better returns for much lower inputs.

The cost of bush removal in order to get better grass coverage for cattle is much too high in comparison with game establishment.

Should his advice been followed and well managed as well, it can only be good news for hunters and the hunting industry in South Africa.

On the other hand, farmers should take note of this and try their best to keep the natural balance in an area so as not to force themselves out of one type of farming business into another type that just may not be worthwhile any longer due to a total oversupply!

True,

Encroachment is a genuine and serious issue on many SA sweet- and mixed veld farms, one just need to look at the amount of chest high Acacia spp and Dichrostachys on some ex-cattle farms. Loss of grazing is alarming. Bio-opening with some browzers has been successful i belive but under careful managment and patience!

Madikwe game reserve is prime example, as it is made up of ex-cattle ranches.

Whether (we like it or not) this introduction of species and the creation of game ranches preserves conservancies and the likes is a natural progression of animal and human develelopment and (nothing can be done to stop it) in fact it (makes a lot of sense really) if WE stop for one moment and look at the real world we live in within Africa ...

In a perfect world there would be no Wars destruction of habitat disease and the likes ... BUT we live in a Real World where all those things prevail with man and beast struggling for land food and habitat, and with the (ever increasing man population) and all the challenges and strife that brings, we have the scene set for what is transpiring particularily in Southern Africa.

South Africa has actually (lead the way) with game ranch explosion (9000+) following to a lesser degree by countries like Namiba and in more recent years Zambia ...

What we must ALL remember is there have in (recnt decades) been these LARGE National Parks around Africa essentially under government control where the animals were to a degree protected from LARGE SCALE poaching but with poaching and bushmeat an explosive problem it stands to reason that with (shrinking habitat for the animals) that has been created by man the basic herding of wildlife into smaller preserves is the future as that way there is some hope for conservation of the species ... if that was not done it does not take a scientist to work out what will happin to wildlife and their numbers ...

The way forward had been to open up land and parks more to (private enterprise) and that way with better management of smaller blocks or conservancies and wildlife preserves there will still be a future I believe for wildlife for decades and beyond hopefully, but one can never tell in this strange world of ever changing attitudes and the unknow future challenges

Cheers ... Peter