Southern, Central and East African Mammals [antikvár]

Introduction One of the main attractions of southern, central and east Africa is the great variety of game species and the impressively large herds which throng the open plains in many of its protected areas. Who could fail to be awed by the masses of migrating Blue Wildebeest at Serengeti, the concentrations of Hippopotamus in the Luangwa River, and the dry season gatherings of Elephant along the Chobe River. Usually it is the game and large predators that act as the prime attractions to the visitor but one cannot discount the extremely rich small animal fauna of the region. More than 1 000 species of mammal occur in Africa south of the Sahara Desert, most of these found in the area covered by this book. Unlike bird-watching, mammal-watching presents a number of difficulties to the interested observer. Many of the smaller species -the bats, shrews, golden moles and small rodents - are nocturnal, secretive and seldom seen. However, you may on occasion observe bats at their roosts; shrews and mice are frequently caught by domestic cats and left as uneaten 'gifts'; and many of the species leave signs of their having passed: the meanderings of golden mole surface tunnels, mounds pushed up by molerats, small heaps of cut grass and sedge stems leftbymembersofthe Otomys species, and the tracks of the water mongoose in stream-side mud. All tell of the presence of these species in an area, and patience and perseverance may be rewarded with a sighting. In this book we have covered 152 species of mammal: nearly all of the larger and more obvious species, also a few of the more unusual such as the Pangolin, Aardvark and Porcupine, as well as representatives from the different families and genera of bats, shrews, elephant shrews, golden moles and smaller rodents. In a guide of this nature there is not space enough to describe each of the small mammals but the notes will enable you to differentiate a horseshoe bat from a free-tailed bat and a shrew from an elephant shrew, for example. In many cases different species of bats, shrews, golden moles and some small rodents require careful examination of teeth and chromosomes to separate one from the other, and in such cases you will not be able to determine a specific mammal. There are areas of confusion and uncertainty even for the specialist: in the case of the Cape Serotine Bat some experts believe that several species may be involved and not just one. Even in the case of several larger species, the Gorilla for instance, it is possible that further research will reveal that two distinct species can be identified. If one considers that a large number of the smaller species of mammal occurring in Africa are known from only a few specimens one begins to realize how much research is still required. TTie Okapi was only made known to the outside world in 1900 and the Gorilla, although known for many centuries, was only properly described in the middle of the last century. Smaller species are still being discovered, such as the Longtailed Forest Shrew collected in 1978 in a forest on the southern coastal belt of South Africa. Several new species of rodents, mongooses and forest monkeys have been described over the past 20 years. a number of mammal species found in our area are threatened by hunting and habitat destruction. The Mountain Gorilla is restricted to small forest pockets and fewer than 600 survive today; fewer than 4 000 Eastern Lowland Gorilla roam the equatorial forest. The 4