Blow as wildebeests return to Serengeti for calving

By KIPCHUMBA KEMEI

KENYA: Hundreds of thousands of wildebeests that had three weeks ago returned to the Maasai Mara Game Reserve from the Serengeti plains have gone back.

They started leaving this week after the start of long rains on the northern part of the Serengeti. The move has put to rest fears by ecologists that the annual July migration cycle to Mara would change. It is also a blow for tourists who had wished to witness their migration.

They had returned to Mara less than a month after they left for Serengeti because of the drought on the eastern part of Serengeti where they were supposed to be for calving which starts in February.

Ecologists say eastern Serengeti, which is a predator free zone, is an ideal habitat for them to calve. Calving in Mara would expose them to predators such as lions, hyenas, leopards, and cheetahs among others. “They started moving north of Serengeti National Park when the rains set in. They will be there to graze as they move to the calving area. Apart from the predators, it is a relief because there was no enough grass in Mara to sustain them until they calve,” said Kevin Gichangi, Mara River Basin Initiative manager with World Wide Fund for Nature.

He attributed the drought that had ravaged the Mara-Serengeti Ecosystem for six months to climatic changes.  Meanwhile, hotel proprietors in the reserve had positioned themselves to cash in on the presence of the wildebeests, hoping there would have been increased tourist bookings in the period preceding the Christmas and New year holidays.

“We thought they would have been in Mara for long for tourists who didn’t watch the last July migration to return. We had recalled the staff we had sent on compulsory leave in readiness for the arrivals,” said Lily Waddington, the proprietor of Osero Camp within Siana Conservancy, east of the park.