The author of this analytical review of the recently published revision of the Mammals Red Data Book has been a member of the Survival Service Commission (SSC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) since 1963, and is one of the five members of the small advisory Alert Group within the Commission. A widely known naturalist and anthropologist, he spent 22 years in Borneo, where he was deeply involved in South-east Asian conservation problems. He also initiated, planned and carried out with General Charles Lindbergh one of the SSC's most successful projects—a two-man mission which persuaded the Philippines Government to act to save the tamaraw, described in Oryx 1969, pages 8 and 87. The SSC is officially responsible for the Red Data Books, the idea for the series being the invention of the chairman, Sir Peter Scott. There are now five volumes: Mammals, Birds, Amphibia and Reptiles, Freshwater Fish and Angiosperms.

When the white man came to Nyasaland—now Malawi—the country teemed with wildlife. The next hundred years saw a fivefold increase in the human population and an immense depletion of the wild animals. Today, although protected only in the five national parks and three game sanctuaries, the wildlife is again increasing, and the main tasks are to develop the reserves and educate the young especially to value them.

What has happened to the animals and birds listed as endangered species 25 years ago at IUCN's first technical meeting? The FPS Hon. Secretary investigates their present status and looks at the conservation methods that have proved most effective.

In this account of a safari to look for Arabian oryx in Oman—home of probably the last survivors in the wild—the author found remains of three dead animals and evidence for the chasing and capture alive of four more. These, he believes, were the last wild Arabian oryx. Other observers think that it is too soon to say, and emphasise the vastness of the area, but certainly, in the interval since this safari in October 1972, no reports of wild Arabian oryx have been received by the FPS.

You do not grow bananas in the north of Scotland or raspberries in the Serengeti. Similarly temperate-zone cattle are not suited to Africa's semi-arid lands but giraffe and eland thrive. So these and other wild species, says the author, should be domesticated for such lands—40 per cent of Africa south of the Sahara is semi-arid—with cattle farming restricted to the highlands. In addition, research on new systems of management should aim to make use of the wild animals’ preferences for different grasses, bush and browse—from the tree-top using giraffe to the root-digging warthog.

Until the middle of the present century Mongolia was little affected by man, in the sense of interference with and distortion of the natural environment. In 1918 the population of this 600,000-square-mile country was only 640,000, with 9.6 million domestic animals. (The comparable figures today are 1,300,000 and 23.4 million). Thanks to this lack of interference and the protective measures of the Mongolian People's Republic, Mongolia still has some of the rarest of the world's mammals, notably wild horse and camel, Gobi bear and Asian wild ass. The most threatened of them is the Przewalski horse, which some scientists think is extinct. But the two authors believe that it survives in small numbers. They urge the need for large reserved areas where livestock, which compete for the horses' grazing and water, can be eliminated.

The Bamu Protected Region, created in 1963, is primarily a restricted hunting area and game reserve of 47,400 hectares. It is not generally open to the public, though special permission to visit it can be obtained from the Department for Environmental Conservation.

Meat is short in southern Nigeria. Wild animal meat is popular, but the wildlife is seriously depleted. To help supply the demand for meat and also ease the pressure on the wildlife, a quick-breeding species, the giant or pouched rat, is being domesticated. The author describes some of the widely held taboos about this meat, which nevertheless is in considerable demand.