Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
knowledge was useful- by banning all night time hunting of leopard we could be sure that the
population would stay slightly above the 80% of Carrying Capacity which is the stated policy
for Safari Areas in Zimbabwe. We also found that where night hunting was legal (private and
tribal land) that although the total leopard population was much lower c40-50% of CC the
annual sustainable yield was about the same number as in the parks safari areas…abundant
food allowed for rapid population growth even in the face of intense hunting pressure.
It is also patently obvious that the 'conventional Wisdom' that elephant increase by 4% per
annum is BS…despite sport hunting, PAC, Poaching and culling some 40,000 individuals the
Zimbabwe elephant population increased by a steady 4% between 1980 and 1997…obviously
carrying capacity for elephants is higher than we think.
We just do not know enough.”
Despite the problems pointed out by Don Heath, to try and mitigate some of the
environmental swings, both in National Park Game Reserves and private reserves and ranches,
calculations are made on the carrying capacities of the vegetation for both individual and total
animal load. For cattle the amount of land required is calculated in Animal Unit (AU) or Large
stock Unit (LSU) and is equal to vegetation consumption needed by a 450kg animal to gain
0.5kg/d based on a 55% digestible food source over several years. For example this may be
10 hectares per AU. Thus, in some complex but logical math that was reviewed above, Owen
- Smith gives examples in his topics on how to calculate the carrying capacity of various areas
of Southern Africa game farms and game reserves.
Waterbuck
These units apply to grazers such as zebra and wildebeest and areas of the Kruger Park
provide from 300kg to 4000kg of grass per hectare, depending on soil and rainfall. For kudu
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