The book also deals with a number of related topics, namely the potential, historical distribution of the larger herbivores in relation to bioregion, some interesting distribution patterns, a review of changes in the status of the larger species since the early 1800s, and observations on movements and migrations of some of the larger ungulates. In order to provide a human background, a brief summary of the picture – relating to the San, the Khoikhoi, the Bantu-speaking peoples and the European visitors and colonists – during the early historical period is included. To convey something of the life and times of the early chroniclers, and especially their interactions and experiences with the larger mammals that they encountered, the species texts contain numerous, verbatim, extracts from the original literature sources. Additional information is given in a series of Boxes. For each of the species covered, an ‘Overview’, which interprets the distributional information in the text and on the maps, is presented. For those species for which the quantity and quality of the records is satisfactory, maps depicting the localities of qualifying written, historical records and supporting records are included. All the known records are presented, by decade within each territory, in a series of independent species-specific accounts. from the 1820s (when the first written records were made) to the 1920s (before large-scale translocations of game animals were undertaken by landowners). Using a diverse range of sources of information – notably the letters, diaries and journals of early, literate, travellers, explorers, missionaries, military personnel, hunters and agri-pastoralists, supported by selected archaeological and palaeontological records and museum material – this book attempts to estimate the distributions of 54 larger mammal species for the early historical period, i.e. Given that many of them were exterminated, or underwent considerable declines in range and numbers, it is crucial to appreciate what occurred there historically, to enable the setting of policy to guide the management of these species, on public and private land, today. Until now there has been no single repository for detailed information pertaining to the incidence of these animals, during the early historical period, in the territories in question. These habitats in turn supported a remarkable array of medium- to large-sized mammals, including the large carnivores (such as the lion, the leopard, the spotted hyaena and the African wild dog) and the very large to smaller herbivores (such as the hippopotamus, the eland, the Burchell's/plains zebra, the black wildebeest, the vaal rhebok and the steenbok). The latter were dominated by extensive grasslands, with lesser areas of savanna and karroid vegetation. Prior to a progressive increase in their human populations, which commenced in the 1820s and 1830s, these two territories incorporated a wide range of mammal habitats in a number of almost pristine wetland and terrestrial ecosystems. The former is dominated by vast plains, with low ridges, hills and mountains in places, and the latter by high mountains and plateaux, dissected by steep-sided river valleys. The Free State Province (one of the Republic of South Africa’s nine provinces) and its south-eastern neighbour, the Kingdom of Lesotho, are characterised by very different topography.
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