Hunters offer hope for preservation Collaboration: When a rhino is hunted in South Africa, scientists have a chance to build their bank of genetic material and preserve an endangered species.

Buying time

If he can build a bank of genetic material from endangered species, he says, it will allow the politicians and conservationists time to "sort out the habitat problem."

"Then we can come back in 50 years time and put the animals back," he says. "The race is on to collect as much material as soon as possible. We can't wait until we are down to five or six animals.

"The bottom line is you can have biodiversity, which everybody gets excited about, which indicates the number of species we have, but if you take one of those individual species and you have only 10 or 12 individual animals in that species, it isn't going to help. They are going to die."

How does Bartels, a veterinarian and zoologist, feel about using hunted beasts as a resource?

"We don't go out and kill animals ourselves, but we do also realize that the survival of wildlife in Africa is dependent on utilization of these animals. Whether it be for live transactions [to zoos or game parks], hunting [for fees], or meat production, it is utilization."

Bartels and his staff of four, helped by two student interns, are collecting genetic material not only from rhinos, but also from 14 threatened species, including the cheetah, red hartebeest, gemsbok, kudu and the Cape hunting dog.

Disease-resistant buffalo

His team is also working on reproducing disease-free buffalo. The buffalo is prone to foot-and-mouth and other diseases.

But one strain is resistant to these. If disease-free buffaloes can be reproduced, they will be used to re-establish the natural balance of the veld, or grasslands, which have been damaged by other animals which select the sweeter grasses, leaving the coarse growth to become dominant.

The buffaloes eat all types of grass, allowing space for the sweet ones to re-establish themselves.

Larger herds of buffalo, one of Africa's "Big Five," alongside the rhino, leopard, lion and elephant, would also be a major tourist attraction.

"We are only starting to realize the potential now," says Bartels. "I would like to play a role in saving a number of species in Africa. You can't wait until the animals are down to a few hundred. Then you are really stretching the system.

"We are down to 2,000 black rhino in the world. It's becoming a challenge now to save them. It's amazing that the world is sitting and not doing more about it."

Pub Date: 6/15/97