The Institute of Development Studies and Partner Organisations
Browse

The feeding ecology of two Nile crocodile populations in the Zambezi Valley

Download (860.88 kB)
chapter
posted on 2024-09-06, 06:17 authored by Ian Games, Jacques Moreau
The objective of this study was to assess the impact of crocodiles (Crocodylus niloticus) on the fish populations of Lake Kariba as compared to the one of fisheries. The lake supports a successful crocodile management scheme based on egg collection for rearing and release of three-year- old animals, which is operated by the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management. The fishery has expanded since independence in 1980 (Murphree et al. 1989) and there is pressure to open up areas that were previously closed to fishing. Conflicts exist between fishermen and crocodiles (Chimbuya and Hutton 1988) with many of the problems centering around competition for the resource (i.e. fish and space for fishing or for nesting activity). This study is the first to estimate fish consumption by crocodiles in a natural ecosystem and it is hoped that it might be representative of other places in Africa. Previous studies were combinations of data from several localities (Cott 1961) or from populations of a cool water reservoir: Ngezi reservoir, Zimbabwe (Hutton 1984) or of a lake surrounded by desertic zones: Lake Turkana, Kenya (Graham 1968).

A study to determine the impact of Nile Crocodile populations on the ecology of the Lake Kariba, particularly its fish population.

Funding

The present investigations were sponsored for many years by the University of Zimbabwe Research Board and by the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing Countries (SAREC).

History

Publisher

University of Zimbabwe (UZ) Publications

Citation

Games, I. and Moreau, J. (1997) The feeding ecology of two Nile crocodile populations in the Zambezi Valley. In: Moreau, J. (ed.) Advances in the ecology of Lake Kariba, pp. 183-195. Harare: UZ Publications.

IDS Item Types

Book chapter

Copyright holder

University of Zimbabwe (UZ)

Country

Southern Africa.

Language

en

Identifier ISBN

0-908307-54-3

Usage metrics

    University of Zimbabwe Social Sciences Research

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC