Chris and I are currently back at Yale, but Geemi has been doing an outstanding job documenting wildebeest river crossings and drowning events this year in the Mara River. So far, there have been over 70 river crossings and just one drowning with 1,200 individuals. This is much fewer what we have documented over the past four years (an average of 5 drownings and ~7,000 individuals per year). All of our research thus far is on the Kenyan side of the border, but we just saw a report online of a huge wildebeest drowning that just happened on Sept. 29 in the Mara River on the Tanzanian side. From speaking with Mara Conservancy rangers, Geemi has learned the drowning happened fairly far downstream in the Serengeti, but we are still trying to find out more information. The original article was posted on
Africa Geographic, and here's a photo from their story...
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| Wildebeest drowning in Mara River, Serengeti (photo from Africa Geographic) |
