African Wildlife and Environment Issue 67

SHEPHERDING BACK BIODIVERSITY Eugene Moll

Through time nomadic pastoralists have wandered freely over the landscape, building temporary shelters for themselves and their stock. Over the ages domestic stock has been subject to predation from wild carnivores. More recently in South Africa pastoralists have become sedentary; living in permanent homes with permanent stock-posts/kraals where their herds safely spend the night, during vulnerable times, or in more traditional extensive systems.

Peter Hancock

Photograph: Gondwana Collection Namibia

A new and innovative inititative for people and conservation in the Rangelands

Therefore, it is not surprising that the knee-jerk response of commercial farmers, derived historically when we knew no better, is to try and mitigate their losses by having: • predator-proof fencing, • shooting predators on sight and in co-ordinated extermination practices (the ‘Oranje Jag’ is a well known example), • setting traps (mainly gin-traps that have horrific impacts on the animals caught) and/or poison baits (such as coyote-getters and the poisoning carcases) that also kill harmless species such as Aardwolf, Cape and Bat-eared foxes, vultures and eagles, and more recently some farmers, understanding that the killing of predators is not an answer to their losses, also employ a range of non-lethal techniques (such as specially designed defensive collars, Anatolian sheep dogs, Llamas and/or donkeys) in their attempts to limit stock losses.

Today communal lands tend to be unfenced, while commercial farms generally have extensive and expensive fencing, often costing more than the land itself! In the fenced paddocks stock are providedwater (where no permanent water is available) and when necessary are also provided with supplementary feed. Thus, the once unfenced rangelands have been subjected to permanent grazing for more than a century (even if stock is rotated through paddocks to allow some areas respite from continuous grazing). Gone are the days of vast springbok migrations and open rangelands… In arid and semi-arid South Africa, namely the Succulent and Nama Karoo Biomes, one significant difference between the management of herds on communal land and commercial farms is that the animals on communal lands are generally herded by shepherds, while on commercial land the livestock range free. When commercial farmers suffer stock losses they ascribed these mainly to predators like jackal and caracal.

19 | African Wildlife & Environment | 67 (2017)