Population growth of roan antelope under different management systems

Roan antelope Hippotragus equinus equinus is an endangered species in southern Africa. Appropriate management strategies, under intensive systems, may be to the advantage of roan populations. The exponential rate of increase of roan populations under various degrees of intensive management was investigated. A one-way analysis of variance was used to test the null hypothesis that there is no difference in the rate of increase between roan populations. The roan population on the Nylsvlei Nature Reserve had a negative rate of increase. The high exponential rate of increase (0.2574) of the small Rooipoort population differed significantly (p < 0.05) from all other populations. This population grazed on planted pastures and was fed during the dry season with at least 0.5 kg of supplementary food per day (mixture of lucerne, antelope cubes and lick). It also had the highest sex ratio. Under intensive management. animals may be stocked at a density of up to 20 animals / km2. The Spearman's rank correlation coefficient showed that the rate of increase was correlated with the amount of supplementary feeding. For the populations investigated no correlation was found with % females, % calving rate, population size and density.