In April-May this year the Indian Forest Service held the first-ever tiger census. Hitherto all assessments of tiger numbers had been based on estimates from the 17 or 18 States which still hold tigers. The Indian Government and the Forest Service are to be highly commended for setting up this difficult operation, for the task of counting this largely nocturnal, forest-dwelling solitary animal over the vast area of India is a formidable one. To achieve reasonable accuracy there is no substitute for the man living in the tiger's own forest environment, who will have acquired over the years a knowledge of tiger movements in his area (perhaps 10 to 20 square miles) and can distinguish one tiger from another, partly by sighting but more often by the pattern of the pug mark. This pointed to the Indian Forest Service as the men to do the job, and moreover the work could be done in the normal course of duty.

Founded in 1922, the International Council for Bird Preservation has this year celebrated its jubilee. The author, distinguished ornithologist and naturalist and the last founder alive today, has been a leading figure in the Council's work throughout the fifty years.

The African continent is so productive it could have doubled the world's meat production today if there had been proper wildlife management over the last fifty years. But European man has brought the wild animals to the verge of extinction for the sake of his own unsuitable domestic animals, notably the cow. Today there are signs of change, with farmers looking to the ranching of wild animals, and national parks selling meat from animals that have to be culled. But time is short. The increasing human population is leading rapidly to the complete disappearance of wildlife outside national parks, and the author believes that today every large mammal species is in danger. The only hope for wildlife lies in its utilisation, and the implications of this will be the subject of a second article in the next Oryx.

Colombia has a wealth of wildlife – including endangered species such as spectacled bear, mountain tapir, pudu and condor – a lot of still unexplored country, an impressive list of national parks and reserves, and an active national parks department. But there are many threats: a rapidly increasing population, haphazard settlement (with shifting ‘slash and burn’ cultivation), the increasing accessibility of formerly remote areas, the profitable trade in wild animals, and the lack of public interest in and support for conservation. Roger Perry has spent much time in South America, especially Colombia, and is a former Director of the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands.

Colombia has one of the largest bird faunas in the world – over 1550 species, over 300 mammals, including the endangered spectacled bear and mountain tapir, 350 reptiles and over 1000 fish, and a vast range of habitats, from the tropical rain forest of the Pacific coast and lowland swamps to the spectacular peaks of the high Andes, 20,000 feet and more. In recent years Colombia has set aside over 3½ million acres for national parks and reserves, which are described here by Dr Hunsaker, Conservation Co-ordinator with INDERENA (the Government department concerned) for the Peace-Corps-Smithsonian Program in Bogotá. Colombia's conservation efforts began in 1919 with the passing of the first laws protecting the fauna and flora. In 1941 the Government introduced hunting regulations, and in 1948 the first biological reserve, La Macarena, was set aside. A law passed in 1954 made the condor the first fully protected species. Since then government, universities and interested people have worked to coordinate, in so far as possible, the national park system, the wildlife service and university projects to protect wilderness and wildlife in this extremely critical region of South America.

A footnote to the article on vicuna by Dr H. Jungius in the last Oryx, May 1972, reported that Jeffery Boswall had seen numbers of vicuna in Argentina, where Dr Jungius feared they were extinct. In this article Mr Boswall describes the sightings made by his party and his reasons for thinking there may still be several hundreds, perhaps more, in Argentina.

Of the two rhinos formerly found in Thailand, the Javan is believed now to be extinct there, although the authors of this survey report that some villagers in southern Thailand insist that the rhinos in their area are Javan. The Sumatran rhino is in desperate straits, with poaching a major threat – not surprisingly when a dead animal can be sold for die equivalent of up to twenty years' wages for a farmer.

West Malaysia has elephants, tapir, seladang, tiger and the Sumatran rhinoceros among its fauna, and a wealth of flowering plants – some 8000. The author spent a year attached to the Federal Game Department, with the task of surveying all likely areas for national parks in order to preserve a representative selection of this remarkable wildlife. His report to the Game Department, of which this is a summary, proposed seven major reserves – one national park (already in existence) and six national monuments.

In the article ‘New Attitudes in Nigeria’, by John Henshaw and Gilbert S. Child (Oryx 11, 4: 275–283) there are some errors which I should like to correct, although lack of information on the distribution of many species makes it difficult to be precise.

In Ghana wildlife is valued especially as a source of meat. But overhunting has led to serious depletion of nearly all game species, in some cases almost to the point of extermination. However, the Government is now concerned that the country's wildlife should be conserved and used on a sustained yield basis, and recently new national parks have been created, existing reserves enlarged and government spending on wildlife substantially increased. The author, who is head of the Wildlife Department and FPS correspondent in Ghana, describes the difficulties of making conservation effective in a country where ignorance about wildlife, other than its value for the pot, is the rule.