Abstract
THE modest report of the Bureau for 1936–37 contains much of practical as well as of scientific interest, and this is vouched for by the contributions made towards its upkeep by the Medical Research Council, the Forestry Commission, the Agricultural Research Council, Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd., the Partridge Research Fund, and Hudson's Bay Company Ltd. At the same time, these varied patronages suggest something of the extent of interests served by Mr. Elton and his colleagues. The research on vole populations in itself touches upon many interests: fluctuations in numbers of voles are of immediate concern to the farmer and forester, and to the ecologist they present problems still awaiting solution; the discovery of a disease closely resembling tuberculosis in a large proportion (22 per cent) of voles trapped in areas ranging from the north-east of Scotland to Buckinghamshire, may give a clue to the high death-rate which closes a vole plague, and may have some relationship with human and bovine tuberculosis. These and other vole matters are engaging the attention of a strong team of scientific workers. Research on partridge fluctuations continues, and from 1938 for a period of three years at least, data are to be collected and a much-needed analysis is to be made on the periodic fluctuations of rabbits and hares in Great Britain. It says something for the desirability of scientific investigation and propaganda, that in the report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords on Agriculture (Damage by Rabbits), running to some 270,000 words, less than a hundred were devoted to research.
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Bureau of Animal Population. Nature 141, 822 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141822a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141822a0