Population density estimates of some species of wild ungulates in Simanjiro plains, northern Tanzania

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The Simanjiro plains in Tanzania are important asdispersal and breeding areas for wild mammals from theadjacent Tarangire National Park (Lamprey, 1964;Kahurananga, 1981). For decades, many wildlife areasin Tanzania including the Simanjiro plains have beenunder a legal hunting scheme (Baldus & Cauldwell,2004). Consequently, Simanjiro area has been dividedinto several hunting blocks leased to tourist hunters whoconduct licensed hunting from July to December eachyear (Baldus & Cauldwell, 2004; Rija, 2009). There isalso legal resident hunting occurring in the area duringthe same hunting period (Rija, 2009). However, illegalhunting is a major problem in Simanjiro as it occurs allyear round and causes more significant offtake than thelegal hunting (Rija, 2009). Increased hunting along withcontraction of wildlife habitats undermines the plains’ecological importance and threatens the hunted popula-tions (Kahurananga, 1981; Stoner et al., 2007; Rija,2009).Legal tourist hunting has been partly implicated for theobserved large mammal population declines over manyTanzanian reserves including the Simanjiro areas (Caroet al., 1998; Stoner et al., 2007). A recent report showsthat wildebeest population in Tarangire ecosystem hasdeclined by 88% within the last 13 years because of rea-sons such as habitat loss (TAWIRI, 2001 in Bolger et al.,2008) and hunting (Caro et al., 1998; Rija, 2009).Understanding trends in exploitable ungulate populationsis crucial for sustainable utilization of resources and forimproving the management of protected areas. Informa-tion on population density in this important wildlife area isneeded to enable wildlife managers take informed man-agement decisions. Therefore, this study aims at docu-menting the density and abundance of the hunted speciesof ungulates.