| News / World News |
Urban development threatens wildebeest migration
Kenya and Tanzania are at risk of losing a significant amount of tourism revenue from the world-famous annual Serengeti wildebeest migrations due to rapid urban development and farming activities.
Roads, pipelines, and farmlands pose a threat to the annual Serengeti wildebeest migrations. Photo: David Orgel/flickr
The study shows that roads, oil pipelines, farmlands, fences and new road and rail corridors in the region could impinge on the annual migration, which sees close to 1.4 million wildebeests cross the plains of Kenya and Tanzania.
It is a spectacle that attracts tourists from around the world, making it a major source of income for Kenya and Tanzania.
Xiaodong Liu, the study’s lead author and assistant professor from the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Biology, said: “The wildebeest is an iconic ungulate [hoofed animal] species, whose migrations are important both ecologically and economically.
“About 150 years ago, there were many wildebeest populations that made great migrations, but by 40 years ago, only two large intact wildebeest migrations remained in Africa – the great migration of Serengeti (Tanzania) – Masai Mara (Kenya), and one in the Kalahari Desert in Southern Africa.
“Today, the only remaining large migratory population is that of the Serengeti-Masai Mara,” he said.
The researchers discovered that migratory blue wildebeest populations exhibit a mix of genes which enhanced their genetic diversity and lowered inbreeding levels compared to their neighbouring populations that have recently experienced a disruption in migration.
The wildebeest migration is made up of the blue wildebeests, which are the migratory species while the black wildebeests are territorial and they live within their acquired territory.
“Our study highlights the detrimental genetic consequences of limited migration in wildebeest,” Liu told. “We hope that the new results will inspire investigations into other species, for whom migration is an essential part of their biology.”
The researchers say their findings could also be relevant to other migratory ungulates, such as gazelles and antelopes, that are threatened by similar risks of genetic deterioration as natural habitats become degraded.
Joel Ochieng, programme leader for Agricultural Biotechnology and Wildlife at Kenya’s University of Nairobi, said the presence of physical barriers such as roads and buildings will ultimately interfere with the continuous movement of large ungulates such as wildebeest populations.
Liu called for caution in disrupting the migration routes of animals that rely on movement to survive, as such species will struggle to survive in a human-dominated world unless special attention is paid to preserving their old and natural migratory routes.
He also warned that “the iconic migratory population in the Seregenti-Masai Mara will very likely collapse if their migration route is disrupted, undermining East Africa’s tourism industry and national economies significantly.” (SciDev.Net)
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