"Keeping the enemy at bay": The extermination of wild carnivora in the Cape Colony, 1889-1910

Environmental History, Jul 1998 by van Sittert, Lance

Tails were bought by traders outside the colony, particularly in Bechuanaland and German South West Africa, and resold to magistrates in the Cape Colony. According to a local official, the "Kalahari and Back Country is over run with vermin . . . as fast as animals are being destroyed in this District, they are coming over from German South West Africa which is reported to be infested with jackals and other vermin .

. . The Colonial Government is therefore paying for the destruction of vermin reared and bred in a neighbouring state." The jackal skin karosses highly prized by frontier African societies underwent a sudden change in style according to the MLA for Prieska: "now the Kafirs get so much for the tails separately that they cut the tails off, and I don't see them so much now." In the Midland districts it was reported that "Jews are becoming middlemen in jackal tails."4o These were bought in the public market or "destroyed in many cases by natives but they lived a long way off from the Magistrate's office, and they naturally sold them to 'smousers' or anybody else at a low figure."4' Tails were also being resold in connivance with the court messengers and police entrusted with burning them. Most audacious of all was the manufacture of false tails from jackal, meerkat, and polecat skins, and even their rumored importation from Europe. Stock farmers roundly condemned the frauds of frontier traders and freebooters, but were not averse to speculating in proofs themselves.4 If the colonial state was inclined to turn a blind eye to farmer speculation, it was less tolerant of the wholesale fraud being perpetrated in the border districts. The bounty rate and methods of proof were thus constantly revised. In 1895, the payment of rewards was split between government/divisional councils and poisoning clubs in a bid to encourage tighter policing at the local level. The majority of divisional councils simply refused to pay, and the overall vermin body count declined in the 1895-1896 period, sparking an outcry from farmers. Thereafter the colonial state concentrated on lowering the rates to remove the incentive for fraud, but with only mixed success in the face of farmer opposition. At the same time, it demanded firmer proof for payment. In 1895, a tail with bone was required, or the full skin of any animal with a tail less than six inches long. Bogus tails with wooden bones continued to appear, however, so in 1899 the required proof increased to include the tail and a scalp with ears. Finally, in 1903, the complete, uncured skin with tail, scalp, and ears was demanded; the magistrate cut off the tail and scalp and returned the skin to the claimant with payment. As a further deterrent, claimants were required after 1896 to sign a written declaration that the proofs had been killed in the colony, and after 1899 the signature of a landowner, justice of the peace, or field cornet was also needed.