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| Location: |
Africa - Eastern Africa - Sudan |
| Subject: |
Distribution - Status |
| Species: |
White Rhino |
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The white rhino in the Garamba NP in Zaire appear to be rcovering their numbers after the disastrous slaughter between 1963 and 1966 when the park was occupied by armed soldiers or rebels. Dr Kai Curry Lindahl estimated that numbers of Ceratotherium simum cottoni had fallen from about 1200 to about 100. Last year three members of the Kenya Wildlife Management Project, Drs. J.M. Savidge, Michael Woodford and Harvey Croze, in the course of aerial surveys for the Zaire Conservation of Nature and the Environment Project estimated the number at over 400. Because white rhino thrive in heavily utilised grasslands, they belive taht numbers could build up considerably. The park is large fire-climax grassland, being annually birned by ?hot' fires, i.e. in the late dry season. But the moisture in the soil is sufficient to ensure a vigorous regrowth of grass after the burns, and thus, at the height of the dry season, when food would otherwise be scarce, the rank unpalatable stands of grass normally to be expected have been burned off and replaced with a ?palatable sward'. As the process involves no loss of nutrients, productivbity is increased and Garamba can be throught of as a ?forest' of large herbivores instead of trees, an interesting result of park management.
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White rhino increase in Zaire
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