This paper describes how the Zimbabwe Natural Resources Act of 1941 nurtured a civic landholder-based conservation movement, the Intensive Conservation Area movement (ICA). This is not recorded in the published literature. It provides a rare insight into the efficacy of environmental regulation that legally devolves use rights and regulatory responsibility to communities of landholders, and favours democratic processes above top-down regulation. The main message is that natural resource governance is effective when (a) landholders are genuinely empowered with the rights to use and manage natural resources provided, and (b) this occurs within a framework of devolved and collective self-regulation through structures built democratically from the bottom up. The effectiveness of these structures is surprisingly sensitive to any reduction in democratic control. The ICA movement anticipates, and is aligned with, the emerging theories of common property, scale, management, systems thinking and new institutional economics. These have common roots in the principle that human affairs and complexity are best managed where hierarchies of nested institutions serve the bottom layers, not the top. This suggests that entitling landholders, including communities, with full choice to use and management natural resources, and relying on local collective action to control environmental abuses or externalities, will strengthen future approaches for natural resource governance, including for wildlife and southern Africa.

The capture of wild animals is a stressful event which may cause a capture-induced hyperthermia, resulting in morbidity or mortality. We investigated whether various cooling techniques were effective at lowering the body temperature of hyperthermic animals. To achieve this, we implanted miniature temperature-sensitive data loggers into the abdomens of 12 blesbok (Damaliscus pygargus phillipsi). Five animals were cooled by dousing with water of different temperatures (4°C, 17°C, 28°C) and fanning after dousing with 28°C water. Seven animals were cooled by ice-packs, a fine mist spray of 28°C water, intravenous (IV) infusion of one litre of 4°C saline solution or 28°C water-dousing. The body temperature after capture was significantly elevated to as high as 41 °C to 42°C. Water-dousing interventions significantly decreased minimum body temperature but there was no difference in the minimum body temperature reached or the magnitude of cooling between the different water temperatures or by the addition of fanning. The ice-packs also lowered body temperature, whereas mist spraying did not. The use of ice packs and dousing with water between 4°C and 28°C were the most effective techniques to reduce capture-induced hyperthermia in blesbok. Water-dousing, when done appropriately, is the most practical and effective method to cool an animal with capture-induced hyperthermia.

This article describes flocking behaviour and dispersion of Helmeted Guineafowl, Numida meleagris, on and around maize fields during the crop-sowing period (November–December), reflects diet analyses and estimates seed loss. A field transect survey (80 km) was conducted through maize farms in the Heidelberg, Vaaldam area (Gauteng province) and the Balfour area (Mpumalanga province) in South Africa during 2013 to count Guineafowl. Maize, Zea mays, seed loss ascribed to Guineafowl was estimated to be <0.12% of the total harvest. This low impact is probably due to the low density of Guineafowl because of breeding territories required by pairs.

Bush (Heterohyrax brucei) and rock (Procavia capensis) hyraxes (Hyracoidea: Procaviidae) are abundant small mammals and important prey for vertebrate carnivores in the Rhodes Matopos National Park (RMNP), southwestern Zimbabwe. We monitored hyraxes at 20 observation stations in the 424 km² RMNP over a 13-year period (1993–2005). We identified hyraxes to species, and counted and aged them. From yearly counts and age distributions, we computed an index of relative abundance (AI - individuals/km²) and estimate of productivity (proportion of the sample comprising juveniles) for each species. Time series analysis showed that annual fluctuations in AI were marked, but not cyclic, with ranges of 0.4–113.8% (median = 30.0%) for Heterohyrax brucei and 3.7–64.7% (median = 11.0%) for Procavia capensis. Cross-correlation function revealed interspecific synchrony in annual fluctuation in numbers of individuals of the two species. A positive relationship existed between AI of H. brucei and rainfall of the previous austral summer, suggesting that annual precipitation contributes to fluctuations in abundance of this species; synchronous fluctuation of the two species suggests a common response to other regulating factors. Additional abiotic and biotic processes that potentially affected populations of both species are chronicled.

A key concern for South African National Parks, within contractual park areas, is habitat degradation associated with large herbivore disturbances, especially when these include extralimital species.We used a mechanistic framework to bring contrasting views together for better interactions betweenWest Coast National Park management and stakeholders.We modelled mammal population dynamics and used a risk—benefit analysis of contrasting management scenarios to identify the most suitable scenario given the complexity of objectives forWest Coast National Park.Given the parks'dependence on annual flower displays to generate income and the ecological disturbance this requires, removing herbivore species that occurred outside their native range, removing fences, and reducing indigenous herbivore numbers was the most suitable scenario. We suggest that managers could use dynamic herbivore management models to guide them in achieving the suite of objectives they are tasked with.Our methods could be applied elsewhere to guide processes seeking to address complex challenges in modern environmental conservation.

Molecular genetic techniques were used to determine the identity of two catfish individuals that could not be identified as indigenous Clarias gariepinus after phenotypic analysis. The unidentified catfish were compared to 126 reference samples, using sequences of the mitochondrial DNA control region. The reference dataset included African catfish from South Africa and Kenya, as well as GenBank records for this species and for three species of Southeast Asian catfish, including the potentially invasive walking catfish, C. batrachus. Visual inspection of sequences showed parallel polymorphisms in the unidentified catfish and C. batrachus that did not occur in C. gariepinus. A bioinformatics approach using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) of the National Center for Biotechnology Information confirmed that the unidentified catfish show more similarity to catfish of Asian origin compared to C. gariepinus. Finally, a phylogenetic approach showed that the catfish analysed group according to continent of origin (Africa and Asia) with strong bootstrap support, and with the unidentified fish contained in the Asian cluster.We conclude that the unidentified catfish are most likely imported C. batrachus.

Eight post-rehabilitation vervet monkey troop releases were assessed with regard to their outcomes, environmental aspects of release sites and consistency with IUCN guidelines for non-human primate re-introductions. Based on our criteria, none could be considered successful as survival rates were too low. Troops with the best outcomes were close to the mean wild troop size. Despite release sites falling into two major groups in terms of climate, land cover and anthropogenic landscape alteration, we found no clear association between site characteristics and projected long-term survival. A number of IUCN guidelines were not followed. Recommended improvements include implementation of quarantine, disease screening and environmental enrichment, better assessment of release sites, and fitting all individuals with tracking devices to monitor for >1 year.

Game fences are widely used to mitigate human—wildlife conflict and, where fencing is deemed the right choice, appropriate design, alignment and maintenance are the keys to effectiveness. We studied the effectiveness of the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park game fence along the Boteti River in central Botswana, one of the highest human—wildlife conflict areas in the country, using a spoor survey method and counting holes made by transgressing animals. We investigated the fence's effectiveness in separating humans and wildlife, as evidenced by the fence transgression frequencies of different hole-digging and conflict species. Since the fence prevents access to long stretches of river along the national park boundary, fence transgressions for lions (Panthera leo), elephants (Loxodonta africana) and all the digging species were higher during the dry season when there was no surface water available in the park. Conversely, cattle (Bos taurus and Bos indicus) crossed the fence and moved into the park in high numbers during the rainy season, probably to access grazing. Wildlife damage to the fence was highest in the dry season and without the implementation of prompt and constant maintenance and repair, game fences such as the Boteti fence cannot be effective in alleviating human—wildlife conflict.

Primate seed dispersal in South African forests and its potential benefit to forest plants has not been extensively investigated. South African forests are inhabited by only one exclusively forest-dwelling, large-bodied, diurnal, frugivorous primate, the samango monkey (Cercopithecus mitis). Our study presents first insights into seed dispersal by samango monkeys in an Afromontane forest in their northernmost South African distribution. Through focal animal sampling we found that samango monkeys were predominantly frugivorous (72% of observed feeding time), consuming fruits of 25 plant species and dispersing the seeds of 13 (52%) of them through defecation, carrying in cheek pouches and spitting and dropping. The overall ratio of seed predation was relatively low (16%). Although our study spanned the wet season only, our findings demonstrate that samango monkeys may be potentially important seed dispersers for certain plant species (Ficus spp. and Searsia chirindensis making up 44% of the diet) in this part of their range.