ABSTRACT
Sherman Strong Hayden completed his doctoral dissertation at Columbia University in the early 1940s. He believed the best hope for the world’s wildlife was Africa, but only if the lessons of America had been learnt. Africa south of the Sahara held the largest and densest concentration of horned and hoofed animals in the world. The historic and precarious balance between man and beast had been ruptured within ‘a single lifetime’ by Europeans, who were tolerant of neither beast nor primitive man. The herding instinct which had given the plains animals relative security, now made them especially vulnerable as large and compact targets. There were heavy losses, inflicted by settlers and Africans alike, even before the breech-loading gun was introduced in the 1870s, which enabled the hunter to bring down elephant, with little risk to himself. And as the better lands were commandeered by Europeans, so the dispossessed native population pressed even harder upon wildlife for subsistence, sales of animal products and, most importantly, its living space (Hayden, 1942, pp21–25).
