New road threatens Great Migration

Wildebeest crossing the Mara River during the annual Great Migration.

During a lunch break here at Audley I picked up the September edition of New Scientist and whilst flicking through it one headline stood out above all others. In the middle of page seven it said: ”Road will block migration route”.

Unbelievably, it seems the government of Tanzania want to build a road which will bisect the route which sees the migration of over two million wildebeest and zebra from the plains of the Serengeti to the grasslands of the Masai Mara. Indeed, in the article the Frankfurt Zoological Society predict that as a result the wildebeest population could dwindle to just a quarter of its current size.

Route of proposed new road through the Serengeti National Park.

Having been lucky enough to visit both the Masai Mara and the Serengeti - and seeing nothing but wildebeest and zebra from horizon-to-horizon - it’s depressing to think that some people would risk all of this purely for commercial reasons.

As public opinion is often the best way to stop such schemes I trawled the web to find any online petitions against it – and sure enough - there are several. For example, there is a page you can join on the ubiquitous Facebook, and if you don’t fancy that then there is always www.savetheserengeti.org.

Building is due to begin in 2012.

If you want to find out more about one of the animal kingdom’s most awe-inspiring migratory sights, including seeing an interactive map of the migratory route, go to our Great Migration feature.