Flight from Cleveland to Washington and on to Johannesburg - A Short Safari Adventure Among Africa's Thorny Bushveld Wildlife - page 148

Okavango Waterway of Papyrus and Water Lilies Kept Open by Hippos
Elephants are in competition with the latter species for food but also particularly browsers.
We saw a lot of predators in Moremi such as lions, leopards, and wild dogs but eventually
there is a shift since the predator population lags behind that of the prey population. Near the
water channels we did not see much plains game other than some hippo. Indeed, similarly
during the rinderpest epidemic in the late 1890s there was a population explosion of lions.
When the prey was gone they turned on livestock and humans and large numbers had to be
killed.
John Hunter, a park board warden in East Africa, described having to kill many lions in a
similar population explosion, including 18 in one day because they were killing the Masai
cattle. Similarly, with the population explosion of lions and hyenas they later turned on cattle
once the carcasses had been consumed. These then had to be killed. At a conference
concerning population decline of medium sized herbivores, the experts gathered in Maun,
Botswana to voice their opinions; which were diverse and no clear reason could be
determined. Is it because the elephant population explosion or fences stopping migrations or
poaching or lack of hunting or culling of elephants? Part of the reason for the fences was to
protect cattle from Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) carried by wild animals and potentially
transmitted to cattle being farmed on the barren land.