RANGELANDS OF TANZANIA-MISCELLANEOUS PUBLICATIONS

Featured image: Eleusine jaegeri, a large tussock grass, dominates the highland grasslands of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It is unpalatable except when young. Consequently, grazing pressure is confined to an underlying mat of palatable grasses (Andropogon, Cynodon, Digitaria, Sporobolus) which is kept low by constant usage.

Several months ago I made copies of the Range Management Handbook of Kenya available for free downloads https://storiesofeastafrica.com/2023/10/16/updated-range-management-handbook-of-kenya/. The response was so positive that I’ve decided to continue with other difficult to obtain publications on eastern Africa’s rangelands.

During the mid 1960’s and 70’s I was involved in, among other things, surveys of vegetation in Tanzania. Whenever possible, I also obtained copies of other surveys and studies, six of which I include here . Published between 1967 and 1978, they are now out of print and hard to obtain. Nonetheless, they may still have some value, be that for planning, instructional, research, or historical purposes.

Vegetation survey / study areas: (1) Serengeti National Park, (2) Ngorongoro Conservation Area, (3) Mbulu District, (4) Maasailand, (5) Mkomazi Game Reserve, (6) Selous Game Reserve (only the eastern half is mapped). DSM – Dar es Salaam.

Please note: (a) Mkomazi Game Reserve is now Mkomazi National Park; (b) Pages 226-230 provide an English language summary of the German language Mbulu District text report; (c) what was once the eastern part of the Selous Game Reserve is the same area as the present Selous Game Reserve. The remainder of the former reserve is now Nyerere National Park.

Acacia hockii (since recategorized as Vallechia hockii). Woody vegetation covers 64% of the Serengeti National Park.

This part of Mbulu District, mapped as Combretum-Hyparrhenia savanna in 1967, is now farmland. The forest at top of picture lies within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area..

Tsetse fly infestations kept livestock from large areas of Maasailand’s rangelands during the 1975 – 76 wet season. I wonder if that’s still the situation today.