In April 1982 Israeli conservationists released a test herd of Asiatic wild ass Equus hemionus into the central Negev Desert basin of Makhtesh Ramon as the first step in restoring this species into the wild. The five males are being closely monitored to determine how well they adjust to their freedom and if no serious problems are encountered they will be joined by females.

The destruction of tropical forests is perhaps one of the most widely discussed conservation problems of our time. But still scientists know relatively little about the ecosystem as a whole and, more specifically, little about the effects of, for example, selective logging on other forest species. The author, investigating the response of primates to logging in West Malaysia, discovered that, although logging initially causes mortality, the populations of the species he studied all recovered rapidly if the forest was left to regenerate.

When the Monito gecko was first discovered in 1974 on Isla Monito in the Caribbean it was apparently threatened by introduced rats. In 1982 a survey by the authors showed that the species is indeed rare and is restricted to two small areas of the tiny island but further work is needed to establish the reasons; the rats are the most obvious, but as yet unproven, cause. Meanwhile the gecko has been listed as endangered by the USA. This alone will not help but it is a start in the conservation of the species.

Rodrigues, the smallest of the three Mascarene islands, is in immediate danger of losing most of its native vegetation due to the activities of man and introduced cattle and goats. The endemic fauna has mostly disappeared, leaving two endangered land birds and a fruit bat, and most of the plants may soon follow: seven native species are known only from five or fewer individuals. The author visited Rodrigues for two weeks in June and July 1982 with the Director of the Conservatoire Botanique of Stangalarch, Brest, France, in an effort to locate and propagate many of the rare species.

The author has been resident scientist and naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands during 1970–72 and 1976–79, and throughout has been associated with sea-bird conservation in the archipelago. In July 1982, he visited the islands once again, and here reports on the effect of tourism on Galapagos wildlife over the 11-year period. Some of this work has be aided by the ffPS 100% Fund.

While information was being gathered for Part 1 of the new IUCN Amphibia-Reptiha Red Data Book, dealing with crocodilians and chelonians (Groombridge, 1982), it became evident that one small terrestrial emydid turtle, Heosemys silvatica, was known to science by only two museum specimens, both collected i n 1911 in hill rain forest in south-west India (Henderson, 1912). The apparent rarity of the species, and the extent to which rain forests in south-west India have been destroyed or modified, led to concern for the species's survival and made a survey of the type locality a matter of priority. The species was included, with ‘Indeterminate’ status, in the new Red Data Book. This paper is a pre liminary report of a brief field survey initiated by the first author and carried out between 26 October and 5 November 1982.

Releasing animals into the wild, especially when they have become extinct there, is an appealing and dramatic conservation technique. It is, however, fraught with risks and often expensive; its success depends upon meticulous planning. The authors discuss the reasons for translocation, the many problems involved and the special cases where such an exercise may be justified.