30
Kenneth Kaunda in Zambia (1972–1991),
3
or throughout the “wildlife wars”
continuing across Central, East, and Southern Africa.
4
Post-civil war Mozambique
may have seen a stunning, poacher-free revival at Gorongosa National Park; even as
tiny Gombe National Park in Tanzania, one of the world’s primate success stories—
thanks, of course, to Jane Goodall and friends—has of late witnessed declining
chimpanzee populations due to “human encroachment.”
5
The bottom biological line
for Africa, no matter how one presents the diverse tallies of conservation endeavors,
is the continuing reality that over 40% of the human population in the continent’s 54
nations is under the age of 15, and population growth remains over 2% per year,
suggesting an increase by 2050 from the present 1.340 billion people to 2.4 billion.
6
That number figures starkly beside the current count of surviving mountain gorillas:
slightly fewer than 800. But in context, 800 is a huge improvement over the 2003
census, which numbered 380 individuals left.
7
On a very different note, not brighter, by any means, just quantitatively insightful, at least for terrestrial vertebrates, there are an estimated 24 billion mostly captive chickens at any one moment (not including hundreds of thousands of feral
chickens, and a known 5 species of wild jungle fowl whose IUCN Least Concern
status suggests large numbers); and trillions of bristlemouth fish distributed across
12 species in the oceans, particularly numerous in the genus Cyclothone.
8
But we’ll
discuss later on the true reality for those chickens.
Other large numbers of vertebrates—from brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) and
house mice (Mus domestics) to red-billed quelea in sub-Saharan Africa (Quelea
quelea, a small migratory weaver of the Ploceidae family)—together exceed the
total human population by at least 10 billion individuals. But the numbers shrink
rapidly with any species over 50 kilograms; just as intact faunal assemblages within
3 See “Political Institutions and Conservation Outcomes: Wildlife Policy in Zambia,” by Clark
C. Gibson, Swiss Political Science Review 6(1): 87-121, 2000, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/
pdf/10.1002/j.1662-6370.2000.tb00287.x, Accessed February 22, 2020.
4 See “On the frontline of Africa’s wildlife wars,” by John Vidal, The Guardian, May 7, 2016,
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/07/africa-frontline-of-wildlife-wars,
Accessed February 22, 2020.
5 See “For the famed chimps of Gombe, human encroachment takes a toll,” by Anthony Langat,
February 28, 2019, Mongabay, https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/for-the-famed-chimps-ofgombe-human-encroachment-takes-a-toll/Accessed February 22, 2020.
6 See “World Population Review,” “Africa Population 2020,” http://worldpopulationreview.com/
continents/africa-population/Accessed February 22, 2020.
7 See Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund, http://www.saveagorilla.org/60-Questions.
html,Accessed February 22, 2020.
8 The chicken statistic cited in, “Noah Strycker’s ‘Thing with Feathers’,” by Brendan Francis
Newnam, Dinner Party, March 8, 2014, http://www.dinnerpartydownload.org/noah-strycker/: The
Cyclothone number taken from, “This strange, glowing fish is more abundant than rats, chickens,
and humans combined,” by Cody Sullivan, June 30, 2015, Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/bristlemouth-fish-is-the-most-abundant-vertebrate-on-earth-2015-6, which in turn
borrows from, “An Ocean Mystery in the Trillions,” by William J. Broad, The New York Times,
June 29, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/science/bristlemouth-ocean-deep-seacyclothone.html, Accessed February 22, 2020.
4 Protected Area Dilemmas
Kenneth Kaunda in Zambia (1972–1991),
3
or throughout the “wildlife wars”
continuing across Central, East, and Southern Africa.
4
Post-civil war Mozambique
may have seen a stunning, poacher-free revival at Gorongosa National Park; even as
tiny Gombe National Park in Tanzania, one of the world’s primate success stories—
thanks, of course, to Jane Goodall and friends—has of late witnessed declining
chimpanzee populations due to “human encroachment.”
5
The bottom biological line
for Africa, no matter how one presents the diverse tallies of conservation endeavors,
is the continuing reality that over 40% of the human population in the continent’s 54
nations is under the age of 15, and population growth remains over 2% per year,
suggesting an increase by 2050 from the present 1.340 billion people to 2.4 billion.
6
That number figures starkly beside the current count of surviving mountain gorillas:
slightly fewer than 800. But in context, 800 is a huge improvement over the 2003
census, which numbered 380 individuals left.
7
On a very different note, not brighter, by any means, just quantitatively insightful, at least for terrestrial vertebrates, there are an estimated 24 billion mostly captive chickens at any one moment (not including hundreds of thousands of feral
chickens, and a known 5 species of wild jungle fowl whose IUCN Least Concern
status suggests large numbers); and trillions of bristlemouth fish distributed across
12 species in the oceans, particularly numerous in the genus Cyclothone.
8
But we’ll
discuss later on the true reality for those chickens.
Other large numbers of vertebrates—from brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) and
house mice (Mus domestics) to red-billed quelea in sub-Saharan Africa (Quelea
quelea, a small migratory weaver of the Ploceidae family)—together exceed the
total human population by at least 10 billion individuals. But the numbers shrink
rapidly with any species over 50 kilograms; just as intact faunal assemblages within
3 See “Political Institutions and Conservation Outcomes: Wildlife Policy in Zambia,” by Clark
C. Gibson, Swiss Political Science Review 6(1): 87-121, 2000, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/
pdf/10.1002/j.1662-6370.2000.tb00287.x, Accessed February 22, 2020.
4 See “On the frontline of Africa’s wildlife wars,” by John Vidal, The Guardian, May 7, 2016,
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/may/07/africa-frontline-of-wildlife-wars,
Accessed February 22, 2020.
5 See “For the famed chimps of Gombe, human encroachment takes a toll,” by Anthony Langat,
February 28, 2019, Mongabay, https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/for-the-famed-chimps-ofgombe-human-encroachment-takes-a-toll/Accessed February 22, 2020.
6 See “World Population Review,” “Africa Population 2020,” http://worldpopulationreview.com/
continents/africa-population/Accessed February 22, 2020.
7 See Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund, http://www.saveagorilla.org/60-Questions.
html,Accessed February 22, 2020.
8 The chicken statistic cited in, “Noah Strycker’s ‘Thing with Feathers’,” by Brendan Francis
Newnam, Dinner Party, March 8, 2014, http://www.dinnerpartydownload.org/noah-strycker/: The
Cyclothone number taken from, “This strange, glowing fish is more abundant than rats, chickens,
and humans combined,” by Cody Sullivan, June 30, 2015, Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/bristlemouth-fish-is-the-most-abundant-vertebrate-on-earth-2015-6, which in turn
borrows from, “An Ocean Mystery in the Trillions,” by William J. Broad, The New York Times,
June 29, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/30/science/bristlemouth-ocean-deep-seacyclothone.html, Accessed February 22, 2020.
4 Protected Area Dilemmas