Until they acquired firearms, humans made relatively little impact on animal numbers or—with some exceptions—their range. From the last half of the 19th century, however, and particularly since 1940, direct or indirect human wastage of Africa’s animal life has been intense and has reduced stocks considerably. The antelope known as the Zambian black lechwe, for example, believed to have numbered 1,000,000 in 1900, had been reduced to less than 8,000 by the late 20th century, and the population of African elephants declined from 2,000,000 in the early 1970s to some 600,000 by 1990, largely because of poaching for the ivory ...(100 of 32999 words)