Folks, From the Focus On Wildlife Column of The Gambia Daily Observer, here is an interesting article by Dr.Linda Barnett and Mr. Craig of the Makasutu Wildlife Trust. Hope you enjoy it and it would be nice for those who know about conservation of wildlife to give their opinion concerning their suggestion of re-introducing some of our lost wildlife back to The Gambia. Have a good weekend, Gassa HOW IT USED TO BE - By DR. Linda Barnett and Mr. Craig This week we are going to ask you to take a journey back into the past. Not too far though, perhaps only a hundred years ago to around 1900. Can you imagine what The Gambia was like back then? Well first of all there were a lot less people here. The population of The Gambia stands at around 1.5 million people at the present time but only 19 years ago in 1983 the population was about 687,800. That is 54% less than today, so back in 1900 it must have been much, much lower. We don't think that many people would want to go back to how things were in those days, yet some of the things that we have lost would be very nice to have around now. For instance The Gambia has lost much of its closed forests. Wouldn't be good to have that forest still here today when fuel wood is getting sparser and more expensive? We have also los most of our large wild animals. In 1900 the savanna woodland, with its patches of forest, would have extended almost unbroken from the coast to the Senegalese border in the east. Villages, towns and farmland would have existed as small islands in the woodland. Wild animals that used roam freely across the countryside included such magnificent beasts as The African Elephant, Giraffe, African Buffalo and the Giant Eland. Large herds of Antelopes would have dotted the less heavily wooded areas and grassland, including Reedbuck, Defassa Waterbuck, Buffon's Kob,Roan Antelope, Western Hertebeest, Korrigum and Gambian Oribi. The forests would have been filled with Bushbuck, Duikers and different types of Monkeys, and birds would have been everywhere. There also would have been predators such as Lions, Leopards, Hyenas and Painted Dogs, but there would have been so much game for them to eat that they would only rarely have come into conflict with people. THe last African Elephant to have lived in the wild in The Gambia was killed in 1913, where the story goes that it was forced over a cliff on the bnaks of the River Gambia. The last wild Giraffe was killed in 1903. We do not know when the last Buffalo was killed here but it probably survived into the arly 1900s as did the Giant Eland that was hunted to extinction around 1926. The story goes the same way for the other Antelopes that once graced The Gambia in large numbers. The Reedbuck, Defassa Waterbuck and The Gambian Oribi may still be hanging on in very low numbers, but in a few small, isolated pockets and they are faced with almost certain extinction in The Gambia. Buffon's Kob, Western Hartebeest and Korrigum are all extinct, and the Roan Antelope is restricted to one or two small herds that visit The Gambia occassionally from Senegal. It is the same story regarding the predators. Lions and Painted Dogs are now extinct in The Gambia, while Leopards are only very rarely encountered in out of the way places, and hyenas are facing ever increasing pressure and being hunted illegally wherever they are still found. It's interesting to note that all of the above animals still survive in reasonable numbers in Niokolo Koba (Badiar) National Park in Senegal. But why should we want to still see these wild animals in The Gambia? Well, ask yourself how many more tourists would we have visiting us today, spending all their hard-earned cash here, if we still had vast areas of wilderness dotted with large and impressive animals for them to see? How many millions of Dalasis would that extra tourism be worth to the people of The Gambia? Try putting yourself in the place of a European tourist who wants to come to Africa to see animals like Elephants, Giraffes, Lions and herds of Antelopes, and is prepared to pay lots of money for the privilege. Where would he or she go? To East Africa, facing a long 9 - 10 hour flight, a change in time zone, and which is very expensive. Or The Gambia, with only a 5 hour flight, no change in time zone and where it is relatively a lot cheaper to come on holiday? We know where we would go. If only our predecessors had cared a little more for the countryside, we would have had it made tofay. But all is not lost. As we've already said, all of these animals still exist in the wild in Senegal, as well as in some other West African countries, such as Ghana. With The Gambia's good diplomatic relations with these countries it should be possible to get them supply us with small breeding groups of most of these species. We already have some large protected areas, such as Baobolong Wetland Reserve, Kiang West and Niumi National Parks which are large enough and remote enough to be able to re-introduce at least some of these animals into them. We can also designate other low populated parts of the country as protected areas and release wild animals there. It wouldn't be easy, but the technical ability to do the job already exists in The Gambia within Makasutu Wildlife Trust and the Department of Parks and Wildlife Management. All it needs is a little forward thinking and a willingness to improve our country for the benefit of all Gambians. Tourism will bring all of us increased revenue and a better standard of living, and eco-tourism based around wildlife is one way of doing this, alongside other attractions such as Gambia's rich and varied cultural traditions and history. The Gambia has the potential to become the place for foreign visitors to travel to in West Africa and returning our wildlife can help us to reach our full potential and improve our lives. ************************** The End ***************************** There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see, yet small enough to solve. -Mike- Levitt- _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~