WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT - COMMON REEDBUCK
Management of common reedbuck on farmland in KwaZulu-Natal
P C Howard

The common reedbuck was formerly distributed widely throughout Southern Africa, with the exception of the arid western parts of the country.Today its range is limited to KwaZulu-Natal and parts of the Northern Province and Mpumalanga.Populations in the highlands and midlands of KwaZulu-Natal are particularly strong, where the species is flourishing under modern farmland conditions. 

 
Despite some crop damage problems attributable to reedbuck, this is a popular farm game animal.Adults occupy small home ranges and are easily seen; they breed prolifically and produce a good harvestable surplus of animals and as far as is known, give rise to no domestic stock disease problems.
Habitat preferences

The reedbuck is, under natural conditions, a denizen of wetland habitats. Here it finds its two basic living requirements - a year round nutritious food supply and good cover.

The reedbuck can not survive where one or other of these components is missing. On many farms the provision of artificial food, particularly winter pasture grasses, has enabled the reedbuck to use areas where cover is available, that could not previously be because of the lack of winter food.
This is one of the reasons for the increase in reedbuck numbers on many farms in the KwaZulu-Natal highlands and midlands.

Behaviour and social organization
The common reedbuck’s first means of defence is to conceal itself, rather than running away when in danger. It depends for escape not on speed, but on its ability to disappear into its habitat by vanishing behind bushes, into long grass into a gully or around a hillside.Reedbuck are either solitary or in small groups, usually of two or three individuals. On farmland the males are usually territorial and defend their area against other reedbuck males.

When females come to use food or cover in these areas the territorial males are provided with the opportunity of mating.Because the territorial males are solitary, they give the impression of being ‘outcasts’, but they are in fact the fittest of all animals in the prime of their lives.

Much fighting occurs in reedbuck society, and the weaker animals, particularly many young adult males die of their injuries. This is nature’s way of ensuring that only the fittest animas pass on their genes to the next generation.

Reproduction
Conditions on farmland, where nutritious winter pastures are available, can be considered ideal for reedbuck. Lambs are produced at all times of the year, and each female may give birth every nine months. Puberty is reached in the female at about twelve months, and she can be expected to lamb for the first time in her second year of life.

Shortly before giving birth, the adult female moves into an area of thick cover such as riverine scrub vegetation, rank field boundaries, vlei or bramble thickets. Here her lamb remains concealed for the first two or three months of its life. Because reedbuck breed continuously, some young lambs inevitably die when these areas of rank vegetation are burnt at the end of winter.

Management - is it necessary?
Many landowners fear that if nothing is done to control the reedbuck populations on their farms, crop and pasture losses will get out of control. This is not so.
In a situation where no shooting occurs, a reedbuck population will stabilize of its own accord, and no management is necessary. Where the numbers of births exceeds the number of deaths, as it usually will, the ‘excess’ will move off naturally to look for a new area.

The level at which the population stabilizes is governed largely by the amount of suitable cover available to that population. A farm with plenty of cover, interspersed with a few pastures, is likely to support a strong reedbuck population. It is nevertheless, unlikely to exceed a level of about 10 reedbuck/km2 (0.2 large stock units/ha).

Farmers should decide whether management is desirable, and this decision can best be made after first counting the animals. To calculate likely pasture losses consider that five reedbuck consume the same as seven sheep or a single cow.

Counting method
In the highland and midland regions of KwaZulu-Natal, the best method of assessing reedbuck numbers is to count them with a spotlamp at night when they congregate on pastures in winter.
Follow these rules:

Count in June or July Search all pastures and their immediate surrounds.
Start counting as soon as it is dark, and ensure that all feeding areas have been searched within three hours of nightfall, or before he grass is frosted, whichever is earlier.Avoid counting on unusually cold and/or windy nights.
Using this simple technique, you can expect to see at least three-quarters of the reedbuck on the farm.

Controlling crop damage
Where crop damage becomes a problem, the following control measures are recommended:

1. Shoot a proportion of the population (see harvesting and legal status below) - but note that success is only short term as the animals you shoot will soon be replaced with others that move from neighboring farms into the ‘empty space’ you create. As reedbuck move only in summer, shooting in early winter will effectively reduce the size of the population that has to be carried over that winter. 
2. In the case of high value cash crops, fencing may be worthwhile. 
3. Some form of ‘habitat manipulation’ may prove the best long-term policy.
 
Recommendations are:
Destroy cover - each three hectares may support two reedbuck. Lands that are most vulnerable to damage - those close to cover or other crops that are unpalatable to reedbuck. If planted to pasture, graze them first and prolong the presence of domestic stock in these lands, as reedbuck prefer not to graze on ‘disturbed’ pastures.

In the case of valuable crop that suffers, some damage, but not enough to warrant the construction of a fence, plant a 5m wide strip of ryegras around it, to divert the reedbuck’s attention.

Harvesting
In deciding which animals to shoot, the landowner must decide whether he trying to maximize his yields, or remove a small surplus of animals. If the latter applies - and ‘small’ means up to 20% of the animals on his property - a random cull is recommended, where he shoots the first animals he sees, without regard to age or sex. In this way he causes least disruption to social inter-relations in the population.

If he wishes to maximize his yield, however, a selective cull will be necessary. Maximizing a population’s yield involves culling as many unproductive animals as possible, and minimizing the number of natural deaths. For reedbuck this can best be achieved by:

Culling sub-adults of both sexes heavily - most would otherwise be lost through emigration. Culling young adult males heavily - about half the three-year-old males would otherwise die (mostly from fighting) before they reached four years of age. Culling adults of both sexes moderately, so that few reach old age and die of natural causes.

Adjusting the adult sex ratio to one male to two females. In doing this, avoid over-shooting solitary adult males which are probably the most reproductively active territorial animals. Be aware that an adult male’s home range is only about 80 ha, and ensure that enough males remain to cover reproductive females wherever they happen to be on the property.

In this way, it should be possible to harvest as much as 30% of the population annually.

Habitat protection
Food and cover are the essential components of a reedbuck’s habitat. Reedbuck will move up to 1.5 km from their daytime cove to feed, and as long as all parts of a farm are within this distance of a good year round food source, such as a pasture, their food requirement will be satisfied. Improving the food supply further will do nothing to enhance the reedbuck’s habitat - in fact, it will probably be detrimental to reedbuck because in planting more pasture, other natural vegetation that could provide cover, will be destroyed. On farmland, reedbuck numbers are usually limited by a shortage of suitable cover. Cover is best provided by permanent range vegetation, approximately 1,5 m tall, with a few woody shrubs present. Encroaching bramble makes excellent cover for reedbuck, until it gets too thick for them to move into. It is preferable to provide cover as numerous blocks widely scattered around a farm, than to provide a similar area of cover in one block. The reason for this is that each block of cover can provide the core of a territory, and more territories will thus be possible in a given area. Try to ensure that plenty of cover is available throughout the year - different patches should be burnt on a two-year rotation to create a mosaic of alternative burnt and unburned habitat blocks.

Legal status
The common reedbuck is classed as ‘protected game’ in KwaZulu-Natal, and may only be shot once the KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service has issued a permit. Permits may be obtained to shoot reedbuck at any time of the year.

KEY POINTS
Reedbuck need a year-round nutritious food supply.Cover is usually a critical resource that limits the number of reedbuck an area can support.There is no need to manage reedbuck populations, as excess animals will move away from their place of birth naturally.

Counts should be made at night with a spotlamp.Anything up to 30% of a reedbuck population can be shot each year.Reedbuck are protected by law, and may be shot only once a permit has been issued by the KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service.