The Gnus of Mara/Serengeti Ecosystem

A rare episode is happening in a great Serengeti–Mara ecosystem. The nature's most spectacular event of wildebeest migration is making a surprise revolution of its traditional movement.


From time immemorial, the wildebeest used to roam in Maasai Mara for at least three months, surprising this year they have spent less than the usual
period.

This fascinating episode in recent history caught the ecologists in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya
offguard.


Right now, ecologists are tightly watching this unusual early return of this year’s great wildebeest migration from the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya to
Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.

Some conservationists speculate that last year’s drought, which for the most part
scorched part of the East African region’s thick vegetation and dried up its

rivers, killing thousands of animals, might have disrupted the natural
wildebeest movement.


The endless plains of East Africa are the setting for the world’s greatest wildlife spectacle - the 1.5 million animal ungulate (wildebeest) migrations.


From the sprawling Serengeti plains to the champagne-colored hills of Kenya’s Masai Mara, over 1.4 million wildebeest and 200,000 zebra and gazelle, relentlessly
tracked by Africa’s great predators, migrate in a clockwise fashion over 1,800
miles each year in search of rain-ripened grass.

There is no real beginning or end to a wildebeest's journey. Its life is an endless pilgrimage, a constant search for food and water. The only beginning is at the
moment of birth. An estimated 400,000 wildebeest calves are born during a
six-week period early each year - usually between late January and
mid-March.

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Comments

  • gnu is another name for wildebeest. Called gnu because of the sound they make.
  • Who gnu? But seriously, a very interesting/informative piece.
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