03887nam 22007215 450 991086524390332120240903135037.09783031600333(electronic bk.)978303160032610.1007/978-3-031-60033-3(MiAaPQ)EBC31477227(Au-PeEL)EBL31477227(CKB)32290987500041(DE-He213)978-3-031-60033-3(OCoLC)1442248646(EXLCZ)993229098750004120240613d2024 u| 0engurcnu||||||||txtrdacontentcrdamediacrrdacarrierBig Game of Botswana The Tragic History of a Once Great Southern African Fauna /by Clive Spinage1st ed. 2024.Cham :Springer Nature Switzerland :Imprint: Springer,2024.1 online resource (178 pages)Print version: Spinage, Clive Big Game of Botswana Cham : Springer International Publishing AG,c2024 9783031600326 Background to Big Game -- Impressions Good and Bad -- The Hunting Holocaust -- Requiem for the Rhino -- The Elephant in Botswana -- Demise of the Kalahari’s Great Herds -- Disease and Death -- The Expiring Kalahari -- They Had in Mind their Children -- Vanished are these Glories -- Appendices.Quoting contemporary accounts from hunters, missionaries and traders from the early nineteenth century onwards, this book illustrates the ecology of the country as it was emphasizing its rich large mammal fauna, its decline from increasing aridity of the country, it destruction by hunters, by disease, and most importantly, destruction of its vast herds, notably of wildebeest, due to the developing beef export economy and the erection of veterinary cordon fences depriving the large game of migration routes in times of drought. Once possessing one of the greatest animal displacements in Africa, with huge migrations of antelope, this book underlines the reality that the fauna of Botswana today is but a tiny remnant of what was perhaps once one of the the greatest spectacles of big game on earth. It shows how the decline came about -- and the controls exercised by tribal chiefs illustrating the indigenous peoples’ attitudes, and eventual protective measures both tribal and statutory. Whereas the pessimistic predictions of extinction at the end of the nineteenth century have happily not come true, nonetheless, the continued existence of this once great fauna is increasingly threatened by climate change threatening an already fragile balance, and human population increase with its increasing economic demands and changes in land use. The study fills a gap in the literature of African wildlife conservation and is distinctive by drawing upon a rich historical background.Conservation biologyEcologyZoologyAnimal migrationBiodiversityVertebratesApplied ecologyConservation BiologyZoologyAnimal MigrationBiodiversityVertebrate ZoologyApplied EcologyConservation biology.Ecology.Zoology.Animal migration.Biodiversity.Vertebrates.Applied ecology.Conservation Biology.Zoology.Animal Migration.Biodiversity.Vertebrate Zoology.Applied Ecology.333.9516Spinage Clive1742744MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQ9910865243903321Big Game of Botswana4169432UNINA