The utilisation of domestic goats in rural and peri-urban areas of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Goats are a common ruminant in livestock husbandry systems in communal areas of southern Africa, but less so in peri-urban areas. While dynamics of goat farming in the former are relatively well-understood, little is known about it in peri-urban environments. We investigated the contribution of small-scale farming of goats to household livelihoods in rural and peri-urban areas in KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa. We used a semi-structured questionnaire survey to elicit views of 115 respondents on the contribution of goats to household income at two rural (Kokstad, Msinga) and two peri-urban (Howick, Pietermaritzburg) locations. Goats contributed to household income as a source of cash and meat in various sociocultural contexts such as at weddings, funerals and festive period gatherings (e.g. Easter and Christmas), including payment for household needs and expenses including food, school fees and medico-cultural consultations. These findings were more pronounced in rural areas, where more goats were kept than in peri-urban areas, which also had smaller herds per household. Goats were a source of cash in numerous ways including sales of their skins after slaughter and use of skins through value addition to make household craft items such as stools that could be sold for cash. None of the farmers milked their goats. Goat famers also kept cattle (52%), sheep (23%) and chickens (67%). Goat ownership appeared to be more profitable in rural areas and contributed to a lesser extent as a source of income in peri-urban areas where goats were largely kept for sale. There is potential for increased value addition of goat products to increase returns from small-scale goat farming in rural and peri-urban settings. Artefacts and cultural symbols derived from goat products are pervasive amongst Zulu people, and represent an additional avenue of research into 'hidden' valuation of goats.

Utilisation of Woody Plants by the Cape Porcupine in Mesic Savannas in South Africa.

Herbivory plays a fundamental role in determining the structure of savannas. The impacts of small and medium-sized mammalian herbivores on trees in savannas remain poorly understood because most research attention focuses on large herbivores such as elephants whose destructive effects on trees can be pervasive at landscape scales. On the other hand, feeding activities of generalist herbivores such as Cape porcupines on woody plants can lead to tree mortality. This study investigated the utilisation of woody plants by the Cape porcupine in three mesic savanna sites in South Africa. We determined the woody plant diet of the porcupine for the early and late dry seasons at Roodeplaat Farm in Gauteng Province, and at Goss Game Farm and Bisley Valley Nature Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal Province. Thirty and twenty randomly located quadrats (30 m × 30 m) were laid at Roodeplaat and Goss, respectively, while 10 smaller quadrats (10 m × 10 m) were laid at Bisley. We measured stem diameter and the length and width of bark scars made by porcupines on stems of woody plants. We collected ten dung samples from each study site in the wet and dry seasons for quantification of woody material in porcupine diet. Porcupine foraging behaviour impacted different tree species at each site: Vachellia robusta at Roodeplaat, Spirostachys africana at Goss and Vachellia nilotica at Bisley. Each of these trees was dominant at each site. More scarring and tree mortality were recorded at Bisley with almost 70% tree sapling mortality occurring on trees that porcupine fed on. The size of bark scars was greater at Goss (P < 0.01) than at Roodeplaat and Bisley, which were similar. The area of bark damage on S. africana trees differed significantly by stem diameter size class (P = 0.007) and was greater for small stems (size class < 7.1 cm) than the larger stems (size classes 7.1-14 cm and 14.1-21). For all the study sites, dung samples revealed that woody material contributed over 80% of the porcupine diet during the dry season, but was lower at 35% during the wet season for Roodeplaat, although it was consistently high for Bisley at 79%. Porcupine foraging activities substantially contributed to tree mortality at each site. We posit that porcupine induced mortality on dominant tree species at each site may contribute to structural heterogeneity in woody plant vegetation in mesic savannas.