<Emphasis Type="Italic">Sarcoptes</Emphasis> mite epidemiology and treatment in African buffalo (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Syncerus caffer</Emphasis>) calves captured for translocation from the Kafue game management area to game ranches

Background  

In Zambia, translocation of wildlife from National Parks to private owned game ranches demands that only animals free of infectious diseases that could adversely affect the expansion of the wildlife industry should be translocated to game ranches. Sarcoptes mange (Sarcoptes scarbiei) has been involved in the reduction of wildlife populations in some species.     

Thelazia rhodesii in the African buffalo, Syncerus caffer, in Zambia

We report 2 cases of Thelazia rhodesii infection in the African buffaloes, Syncerus caffer, in Zambia. African buffalo calves were captured from the livestock and wildlife interface area of the Kafue basin in the dry season of August 2005 for the purpose to translocate to game ranches. At capture, calves (n=48) were examined for the presence of eye infections by gently manipulating the orbital membranes to check for eye-worms in the conjunctival sacs and corneal surfaces. Two (4.3%) were infected and the mean infection burden per infected eye was 5.3 worms (n=3). The mean length of the worms was 16.4 mm (95% CI; 14.7-18.2 mm) and the diameter 0.41 mm (95% CI; 0.38-0.45 mm). The surface cuticle was made of transverse striations which gave the worms a characteristic serrated appearance. Although the calves showed signs of kerato-conjunctivitis, the major pathological change observed was corneal opacity. The calves were kept in quarantine and were examined thrice at 30 days interval. At each interval, they were treated with 200 μg/kg ivermectin, and then translocated to game ranches. Given that the disease has been reported in cattle and Kafue lechwe (Kobus lechwe kafuensis) in the area, there is a need for a comprehensive study which aims at determining the disease dynamics and transmission patterns of thelaziasis between wildlife and livestock in the Kafue basin.     

Conserving large populations of lions – the argument for fences has holes

Packer et al. reported that fenced lion populations attain densities closer to carrying capacity than unfenced populations. However, fenced populations are often maintained above carrying capacity, and most are small. Many more lions are conserved per dollar invested in unfenced ecosystems, which avoid the ecological and economic costs of fencing.     

Boots on the ground: in defense of low-tech,inexpensive, and robust survey methods for Africa’s under-funded protected areas

Protected area managers need reliable information to detect spatial and temporal trends of the species they intend to protect. This information is crucial for population monitoring, understanding ecological processes, and evaluating the effectiveness of management and conservation policies. In under-funded protected areas, managers often prioritize ungulates and carnivores for monitoring given their socio-economic value and sensitivity to human disturbance. Aircraft-based surveys are typically utilized for monitoring ungulates because they can cover large areas regardless of the terrain, but such work is expensive and subject to bias. Recently, unmanned aerial vehicles have shown great promise for ungulate monitoring, but these technologies are not yet widely available and are subject to many of the same analytical challenges associated with traditional aircraft-based surveys. Here, we explore use of inexpensive and robust distance sampling methods in Kafue National Park (KNP) (22,400 km²), carried out by government-employed game scouts. Ground-based surveys spanning 101, 5-km transects resulted in 369 ungulate group detections from 20 species. Using generalized linear models and distance sampling, we determined the environmental and anthropogenic variables influencing ungulate species richness, density, and distribution. Species richness was positively associated with permanent water and percent cover of closed woodland vegetation. Distance to permanent water had the strongest overall effect on ungulate densities, but the magnitude and direction of this effect varied by species. This ground-based approach provided a more cost-effective, unbiased, and repeatable method than aerial surveys in KNP, and could be widely implemented by local personnel across under-funded protected areas in Africa.