Graduation date: 1993

M. Tech. Architecture (Professional) / The National Research Foundation has recognized the zoo as a critical player towards the conservation of animal heritage in southern Africa. Yet, as we have seen, tantamount to having outstanding research methods, is having the needed facilities to deploy them effectively. In order for this to come to bare, the zoo requires a careful assessment of architectural concerns. This thesis presents exactly those. The wildlife medical centre here proposed precipitates out of a comprehensive study engaging the following issues of concern; zoo healthcare and rehabilitation, sub-nature and animal architecture. The proposed site location currently supports the out-dated hospital (built in 1969), which is on the zoo's south-eastern corner along Boom Street. Its facilities include a veterinary hospital, research laboratories, a bio-bank, temporary wards, and rehabilitation wards whose design derives not only from traditional matters of architectural concern but also the informed, first-hand knowledge of the animals' needs and preferences as understood by the zoo's staff. Additionally, the proposed design exposes and showcases the zoo's research facilities along its public interface in order to better serve its educational efforts. Thus, this proposal presents the means for promoting conservation awareness and, at the same time, empowers its dedicated staff.

Wildlife rehabilitation, defined as “providing temporary care to injured, ill and orphaned wild animals with the goal of releasing them back into their natural habitat”, developed in response to the increase in human population and urbanisation. Widllife rehabilitation centres developed to deal with casualties from man-made hazards; and because rehabilitation involves human emotions of empathy and compassion, the activity has not tended to be the domain of wildlife specialists, but of concerned members of the public. This has caused concerns for wildlife specialists over the welfare of animals being rehabilitated, because making decisions based on emotions may result in an animal being kept alive under unethical conditions, instead of being euthansed. Furthermore, there may be negative impacts on conservation, as it could divert money away from habitat protection and may place wild populations at risk from disease and genetic pollution. This dichotomy in opinion is most often seen between rehabilitators, who focus on the individual animal, and government wildlife officials, who grant them permits, and who focus on the security of entire communities. Although the value of wildlife rehabilitation cannot be underestimated, in terms of its service to wildlife and the public, there is a need to evaluate whether wildlife rehabilitation may result in more rather than less animal suffering and have a detrimental impact on the existing wild populations. I thus set out to determine the efficacy of wildlife rehabilitation, particularly in South Africa. In the first assessment of rehabilitation centres in South Africa, 65% known centres (n = 63) from all nine provinces returned questionnaires. Several thousand injured, diseased and orphaned animals pass through these centres each year, clearly showing the need for rehabilitation centres in South Africa. However, due to lack of scientific research on the efficacy of rehabilitation methods of care and release, and minimal post-release monitoring, I found that experience and intuition drove most rehabilitation practices. Additionally, because personnel from most centres cited lack of finance as a main impediment to the goal of rehabilitation, the result of rehabilitation may include negative affects on individual animal welfare and survival, as well as on conservation efforts for wildlife communities. Thus, I suggested wildlife rehabilitation be centralised to a provincial or national government. Furthermore, I suggested that guidelines of minimum standards should be developed in consultation with experienced rehabilitators, veterinarians and conservation scientists; to be enforced by trained and dedicated conservation officials. To gain further insight into the need for wildlife rehabilitation in a community in South Africa, I decided to examine four-years of intake records from a large rehabilitation centre in the KwaZulu-Natal Province for trends. Animal intake rate was high (2701 ± 94 per annum). Most of the intake (90%) was birds, with few mammals (8%) and reptiles (2%), and most of these were of locally common species (eg doves, pigeons). This reflects the findings of other studies, namely that species living in close association with humans are the most frequently admitted to rehabilitation centres. In total, most of the animals admitted (43%) were juveniles, which were assumed to be abandoned or orphaned. The implications of then rehabilitating these juveniles, which were largely uninjured, is whether humans should be interfering with nature if the cause was not human-related; can each juvenile (especially in these large numbers) be adequately prepared to survive and thrive when released into the wild; and is there space in the environment for them, without causing harm to others already in the environment. I suggest that the large numbers of animals currently being admitted to the centre may be reduced, possibly through increased public education particularly to leave uninjured juveniles in the wild. Furthermore, improvements in the centre’s recording system may allow for use in funding requests and for various research opportunities. There is a general lack of post-release monitoring in wildlife rehabilitation, and the IUCN advises that confiscated and orphaned animals should be euthanased or placed in life-time captivity. I thus decided to document the post-release fate of rehabilitated vervet monkeys and leopard tortoises, two species commonly admitted to a rehabilitation centre, and rock hyrax (Procavia capensis), as a further case study, even though individuals were not from a rehabilitation centre. Success of releasing rehabilitated animals cannot be judged on whether it results in a self-sustaining population, as in reintroductions, as it is to improve the welfare of that particular animal, independent of its species’ status. Survival is thus the most basic indicator of a successful rehabilitation release. Other aspects, such as behaving similarly to a wild animal, are additional success factors, as they likely influence survival. Although after one year post-release, the two troops (T1 = 35, T2 = 24) of vervet monkeys (including an infant) survived, were independent of human food provision and companionship, had established in an area, and had births in the breeding season following release; low known survival (T1 = 11%, T2 = 50%) make it difficult to designate these releases as successful. However, it was clear that the two groups of rock hyrax released were not successful. The group of rock hyrax that had previously been in captivity for 16 months (n = 17) did not have site fidelity after release, and after three months could not be found. All wild rock hyrax (n = 9), except one whose fate is unknown, were found dead, mostly predated, within 18 days. The release likely failed due to predation. For both vervet monkeys and rock hyrax, a lack of social cohesion was suggested as causing the group to dissolve or split upon release, which in turn would increase their vulnerability to predation. Recommendations are provided for considerations in future releases of captive vervet monkeys and rock hyrax. Movements of two groups of tortoises (ten and seven individuals) released at two different sites were monitored over a year, using radio-telemetry. In total, one tortoise was returned to captivity because of disease, four were killed intentionally or accidentally by humans, three others died due to a combination of disease, starvation and/or dehydration, and the fate of six were unknown. Since only two out of seven tortoises survived 13 months after release and only one out of ten tortoises were known to have survived 25 months after release, rehabilitated leopard tortoises were not successfully released into the wild. Recommendations to improve the success of future releases are provided. The occurrence of disease in the tortoise release was a worrying result, and must be addressed before any further releases are allowed. To summarise, there is a dichotomy between wildlife rehabilitation and conservation throughout the world, but this study highlighted the situation in South Africa. The IUCN guidelines for the reintroduction, introduction and supplementation of animals make it clear that there are many threats to the individual animal, to the release environment and to the conservation of species when transporting and releasing animals, especially if they had been in captivity. I believe that I have presented enough evidence in the thesis to suggest that wildlife rehabilitation may result in negative consequences to the welfare of the individual being rehabilitated and to the wild conspecifics or to other species in the release site. I suggest that wildlife rehabilitation needs to move away from being an emotional-based “animal-rights” organisation, to being objectively managed, such that no harm is caused to conservation by these efforts. This may require them to change their constitution so they are aligned with the IUCN guidelines, where more consideration is given to the possible risks involved in releasing animals. However, the applicability of the IUCN guidelines will vary slightly according to the species and situation, and they require input from the local conservation authorities (as was the case in the studies documented in this thesis). I suggest that the public be educated as to the risks that wildlife rehabilitated animals can pose to the safety of the environment as a whole, and that rehabilitated animals do not necessarily survive or thrive in the wild when released, and thus they have to understand that rehabilitation centres will sometimes have to prioritise casualties for treatment, and euthanase exotic species. In conclusion, implementing further research in ensuring long-term post-release survival of rehabilitated animals; developing and enforcing practical guidelines/minimum standards by dedicated and qualified governmental wildlife conservation officials; and having examinations in order to qualify as a wildlife rehabilitator, will ensure humans are “making amends” instead of having an additional negative impact on conservation and animal welfare. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a predictive understanding of the vegetation dynamics of the Lowveld of South Africa (30°35'E to 30°40'E and 24°00'S to 25°00'S). The study covered about 5000 km2 in Adjacent Private Protected Areas (APPA) adjoining the Kruger National Park (KNP). Data gathering (800 sites; 23 properties) commenced in 1989 and those recorded up to 2004 are reported here. The value, both ecological and economic, of the wildlife and tourism industry dependent on this savanna region is discussed in both historical and current perspectives. A range of land-use objectives and anthropogenic interventions were exposed. The properties ranged in size from 30 to 800 km2 and formed an effective and extensive manipulative experiment for investigating interaction of bush density, animal stocking, use of fire and landscape-scale processes. The first descriptive classification (at 1:250 000) of the area was developed using Inverse Distance Weighted interpolations. This confirms similar landscape/vegetation patterns in the KNP and Mocambique. The current mode of determining stocking density or carrying capacity was interrogated and indices suitable for complex multi-species systems developed. This was done in the context of equilibrial/disequilibrial paradigms. Application of the original indices resulted in drought-related declines in animal biomass of 4000 kg km2 over 20 years due to overestimation of carrying capacity. The model proposed here uses rainfall, animal type, biomass and vegetation parameters to determine stocking density for both coarse (regional) and ranch-specific scales. Principal driving determinants (rainfall, geology, soil type, tree density canopy cover, animal numbers, feeding classes and fire) of vegetation structure and their influence on the herbaceous layer were investigated. Groupings on ecological potential showed 'high' potential areas are less sensitive to animal impact than those classified as 'low' potential. Sustainability, embedded in a forward-looking component viz. Strategic Adaptive Management (SAM) with well-articulated endpoints viz. Thresholds of Potential Concern (TPCs) was used to study fluctuations in animal populations with Connochaetes taurinus (Blue wildebeest) as the case study. The TPC approach provides strong pointers for proactive management aimed at maintaining the system within bands defined by TPCs supporting operationally practical and periodically reviewed objectives. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

Sub-Saharan Africa is becoming increasingly impoverished with ever-increasing gaps between rich and poor, particularly in deep rural areas where access to even the basic infrastructure needed for development is insufficient. Ironically such areas are often encountered on the edges of protected areas where conservation exists in its purest forms, the preservation of wildlife. Wildlife conservation, as a preservationist ideal, is in conflict with the rural poor who share its borders. Often the diminishing natural resource base, upon which the rural inhabitants depend for subsistence, is disappearing either through depletion or inside fences in the name of conservation. Having been placed on the development continuum, often by Western ideals, rural dwellers are now dependent on income-generation for their survival. This case study examines the opportunities for rural communities to become involved in meaningful income-generation and how local conservation bodies, managers of protected areas, might encourage and facilitate this. Often the challenge for conservation bodies is to accommodate the development needs of neighbours of protected areas within their own goals of preserving wildlife. The cultural basis of conservation is in transition, given the realisations of the depth of poverty and the new social questioning of the moral right to spend so much on what many now consider to be archaic notions of nature. The desire to integrate conservation with development is by itself insufficient to make a sustainable difference to local communities. Rather, holistic development models are needed to allow conservation to play an effective role in income-generation, from creating the background for successful businesses to helping create markets for produce. Analyses of current conservation techniques to involve communities in conservation suggest the need for a shifting of the conservative, preservationist culture that dominates conservation bodies, towards a more people-centred approach. With this comes a realisation that the goals of development cannot be achieved through conservation but ironically the goals of conservation can be achieved through development of neighbouring communities. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

The uMkhuze Game Reserve in South Africa is a key biodiversity asset which protects diverse natural resources of regional, national and international importance. The park has a notorious history of poaching, which is considered to be the second most important threat to biodiversity. Paramilitary patrol operations are crucial to regulating poaching in the park, and to the collection of data important for the monitoring of the state of biodiversity. The effectiveness of the patrol system as a whole is gauged primarily from enforcement-related data, and it was the intention of this study to present a landscape level perspective that would bolster current evaluation metrics. Home range and use-availability analyses of patrol data collected in 2009 and 2010 were used to construct area coverage boundaries, and to understand whether the distribution of patrol effort within patrol areas was influenced by habitat type. Results suggest that average monthly patrol area coverage ranged from 8.38 km² to 23.15 km². This indicates that although designated patrol areas could be covered with relative ease within a few months, information gaps were consistently occurring in the system. To determine how differences in the amount of area covered by patrol units influenced the quantity of information collected, annual area coverage was correlated with the number of biological sightings, illegal incidents and snares reported. Results show that differences in the size of the area covered did not necessarily influence the quantity of information collected in the field. However, certain areas of the park remained unpatrolled annually. All patrol units visited habitats differently than expected based on the proportion of habitat types that were available to them. The preferential use of habitat types could result in incorrect inferences being made about information outputs generated by the patrol system. The number of biological sightings, illegal incidences and snares reported were associated with the total area of each habitat emphasizing the importance of covering habitats proportionately to their availability in the park. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2013.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Montana, 2004. / Typescript. Additional information available on author's web site. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-142).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2008. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Sept. 23, 2009). Thesis advisor: Frank T. van Manen. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.