In order to sustainably manage a reserve long term, accurate game counts are essential for understanding population trends and reserves carrying capacity. Game counts provide valuable information on population demographics, such as sex structure and breeding success, which can assist management with harvesting quotas for a given year. However, it is important to understand that many variables impact the carrying capacity of a reserve, such as climate, precipitation, soil type, herbivore interaction, competition, disease, etc. For example, droughts can cause populations to crash, through predation and disease, whilst in high rainfall years, the opposite often occurs.
Along with the rest of the Balule Nature Reserve, OWNR conducted its annual game count surveys in September 2013. Click here for the FULL REPORT