Browsing Archive: July, 2014

ANTELOPE COLOUR MORPHS

Posted by Chris & Mathilde Stuart on Wednesday, July 23, 2014,
It seems that the modern trend in game farming in South Africa is to specialise in the breeding of colour morphs of a range of antelope species. It started some years ago with the Springbok, white, black and copper coloured morphs but this has now drawn in the Blue Wildebeest (golden), Gemsbok/Oryx (golden), white Blesbok, black Impala, and one shudders to think what next. 
The motivation of course is financial as many of these morphs bring tens and even hundreds of thousands of Rand at game a...

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Illegal Trade in Animal Parts

Posted by Chris & Mathilde Stuart on Wednesday, July 23, 2014,
With the high prices being paid for animal parts in the illicit wildlife trade the criminal gangs are scenting big profits!  This trade is now the fifth biggest illicit business on earth, following drugs, armaments and the like, and estimated to rake in around $10 billion each year and growing.

Periodically countries, their representative organisations, or NGO’s, gather to pontificate, pass recommendations and even the occasional law, to stem the illegal trade but it continues and in many ca...

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Frack the Karoo!

Posted by Chris & Mathilde Stuart on Wednesday, July 16, 2014,

Many folk, including ourselves, are concerned about the impact the proposed gas fracking in the Karoo will have on this semi-arid environment.  Having seen the “fracking fields” of the Dakotas, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and New Mexico at first hand we have become even more alarmed. Definitely not a pretty sight but when it comes to financial returns on this scale these developments (destruction) have a habit of going ahead!  ‘In the national interest’ becomes a battle-cry for governme...


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Large Predator Reintroductions- for what purpose?

Posted by Chris & Mathilde Stuart on Wednesday, July 16, 2014,

Apart from private game reserves, the SANParks have now got into the act of reintroducing large predators to many of their conservation areas. These include Lion into Karoo, Addo and Mountain Zebra national parks. Numbers are small and will have to remain so but new genetic flow will have to be maintained.  What purpose do these reintroductions serve?  It certainly will do little for overall conservation of the species, especially Lion, Cheetah and Spotted Hyaena

It is argued that these l...


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