Creating Biodiversity Data Collections: The Curation of Botswana Elephant Hunting Records - Mosepele Mabutho , Olebogeng Phaladze , Masego Dhliwayo , Anastacia Makati , Donald Mboma

The poster describes the processes that were followed to preserve the legacy long term data obtained by the university of Botswana Library at the Okavango Research Institute from safari hunting industry following the suspension of commercial hunting by the Botswana Hunting in 2014.

The collection consists of documents and biological specimens that were collected by Botswana Wildlife Management Association (BWMA) between 1996 – 2014. At the library the records were processed to prepare them for archival and improve accessibility to users.

PROJECT AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To transfer, process and preserve unique biodiversity data and materials and to publish the BWMA collection on GBIF .

Conclusion

The collection can provide a baseline for wildlife management and socio economic studies  to explain  spacio – temporal differences in tusk measurements ( weight, length and circumferences).