The Chitawan Wildlife Sanctuary in the Rapti River valley in Nepal together with the Mahendra National Park are the home of die great Indian rhinoceros, one of the world's endangered species. In 1959 and 1963 Mr. E. P. Gee, noted Indian conservationist, made surveys of the area, the second one at the request of the FPS; his reports published in ORYX (1959, V, 57, and 1963, VII, 67) drew attention to the decrease in the number of rhinos, due to poaching, from about 300 animals in 1959 to 160 in 1961, and the large amount of illegal settlement in the National Park. Mr. Willan, who is Chief Conservator of Forests in Nepal, continues the story since then with the encouraging news of the clearing of all illegal settlement from the park and also from the extension, the latter on the orders of HM King Mahendra, and the proper demarcation and accurate mapping of the sanctuary, which it is hoped will be created a National Park. Rhinos are now quite frequently seen, and between January and September this year 35 rhino calves were reported.

The ancient volcanic crater of Ngorongoro in Tanzania, 10 miles across and 2,000 feet deep, is one of the show places of East African wildlife. Formerly a part of the great Serengeti National Park, it was separated in 1959 on the recommendation of a Government Committee of Enquiry, and, together with the Eastern Serengeti, established as a Conservation Area with a total area of 3,200 square miles. This followed Professor Pearsall's ecological survey of the Serengeti in 1956, financed by the FPS, the report of which was published in ORYX, August 1957. In this article the retiring Conservator of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area describes how, helped by money from the British Government, Ngorongoro has developed in five years from “a doubtful starter” to one of the successes of East African conservation. Members of the FPS East African tour will visit the Crater in February.

Polar bears are on the IUCN list of endangered species. In 1961, when there were signs of serious depletions, the Canadian Wildlife Service started a five-year research project on the polar bear's biology and ecology, and the author is engaged on this work. He points out that polar bears are a most valuable resource, especially to the Canadian Eskimos, and if their numbers are allowed to dwindle to the point at which they have to be given complete protection they will have little more than aesthetic value, which in the case of an Arctic species is limited. These extracts from a comprehensive paper on the polar bear's life history and status are reproduced from “Canadian Audubon” by kind permission of the author and editor.

An isolated mountain range, 40 kilometres long, in the rain forest of tropical West Africa, Mount Nimba lies at the meeting point of three countries: Liberia, Guinea and the Ivory Coast, the last two both former French territories. In 1942 the French initiated ecological research on their parts of the mountain, discovered its extraordinary interest and the very high number of endemic species, and declared a strict nature reserve. Of the Liberian part nothing was known until the discovery of high-grade iron ore in 1955, and the immediate formation of a company to mine it, led the International Union for Conservation of Nature to start an ecological study there. The authors of this report are respectively the first Director of the research unit which, aided by a grant from the mining company, began work in August 1964, and the chairman of the IUCN Mount Nimba Committee.

For several hundred years the small whales of the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean and Black Seas have been hunted with varying degrees of intensity. All too often the story has been one of overhunting followed by rapid decline of stocks, but so little is known about these small whales that today it is impossible to assess their populations or the effects of present hunting on the stocks. The author recounts the history of eight species of small whale and urges the need for more research to ensure planned cropping of a valuable resource. A Canadian proposal for whale hunting as a sport is perhaps a sign of a new danger to come.