Tanapa downplays wildebeest deaths
Zebras and gnus drink water after walking a long distance from Masaai Mara (Kenya) to Serengeti National Park. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Authority was reacting to a report published by the ‘Africa Geographic’ website and picked up by social media
Authority said the deaths were natural and should not be a cause of alarm over the eco-system
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa) yesterday described the mass deaths of wildebeest during their annual migration as a natural occurrence and not an ecological disaster as suggested by some in social media. Tanapa was reacting to a report published on Monday by the Africa Geographic website and picked by social media which run a story entitled “Hundreds of wildebeest found dead in Tanzania.”
The website posted a number of pictures taken along Mara river displaying dead wildebeest and went further to state that “…the authorities have been contacted and the exact cause of death has yet to be confirmed.”
But the Tanapa said in a statement yesterday that the deaths were natural and should not be a cause of alarm over the Serengeti eco-system.
“Tanzania National Parks would like to inform the public that the deaths are purely natural and not much could have been done to prevent them. In the national parks and other protected areas nature is always left to take its own course,” the Tanapa statement reads in part.
The wildebeest migration is an annual natural phenomenon which takes place between the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya.
During the migration, a number of animals, up to two million mostly wildebeest and zebra, move in a clockwise rotational route determined by the availability of grass and water.
During the migration a number of catastrophes occur, including diseases, predation and accidents which put the livelihood of migrating animals at high risk. According to Tanapa, drowning in the Mara River is one of the things that happen during the migration in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem and it is estimated that more than 250,000 wildebeest die during the journey. Other causes of death include stampedes and predation.
