The gnu migration
Wildebeest cross a river during their migration from the Maasai Mara in Kenya to the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. The unique event has earned the wildebeest and the two parks a distinction as one of the new wonders of the world. Every year, the wildebeest migrate from the Maasai Mara in Kenya to the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, attracting thousands of tourists to witness the rare event in nature.
The new wonders of the world
Yesterday's TV show, which featured a live interview with Kenya Wildlife Service director Julius Kipng'etich, was the culmination of six days during which panelists invited by the channel voted for new wonders of the world.
The new wonders are separate from the conventional Seven Wonders of the World known for centuries and which are classified by Unesco. The declaration and exposure during the live broadcast will be a major boost to the tourism industry in Kenya and Tanzania.
How Masaai Mara and wildebeest won award
The panel of experts included an oceanographer, a tour expert, a range and wildlife management expert. The Maasai Mara and Serengeti and the wildebeest migration were selected as one of the new wonders because of what the experts termed as "the uniqueness of the Maasai Mara area and the preservation it provides to so many species living in harmony".
The six other new wonders of the world according to ABC are Tibet's Potala Palace, selected for the hope it provides to exiled Tibetans that one day they will return to their homeland; the Old Jerusalem City, which is holy to both Muslims and Christians; the Polar Ice Caps in Iceland for the mixture of cold frozen glaciers and volcanoes; the underwater Hawaiian Island's Monument, a protected underwater coral reef; the Internet - described as a world where anything is possible and the Mayan Pyramids in Cancun, Mexico whose sight was described as breathtaking.
A Million of moving gnu and zebra
In their citation, the panelists said: "More than one million wildebeests, half a million gazelles, and 200,000 zebras constantly on the move - they're all in search of fresh grass and water in Maasai Mara. Welcome to the Serengeti and the Masai Mara plains in the heart of East Africa - the seventh New Wonder of the World. Covering about 10,000 square miles of land teeming with life, the Serengeti is home not only to some of the most diverse wildlife on the planet, but the start and finish line for one of the world's last great wildebeest migrations.
"Good Morning America's" expert panel had a spirited debate about the merits of a moveable, natural wonder of the world. "It's one of the great wonders in terms of animal migrations," said oceanographer and panelist Sylvia Earle. "It's just over the top."
In the end, the uniqueness of the Maasai Mara-Serengeti area and the preservation it provides to so many species living in harmony landed it on the ABC list. "Serengeti-Maasai Mara ecosystems (are) considered to be perhaps the last of the ecosystems - in which - human impact is less than five per cent," said Prof Karim Hirji, former director of the Serengeti Wildlife Research Centre.
Wildebeest migration route
Every year, wildebeests/Gnus, zebras and gazelles roam, pushing ever forward in a clockwise rotation covering the Masai Mara in Kenya and Serengeti in Tanzania, along the way encountering friends and foes alike. "There's high drama almost the whole time," said tour guide Mr. David Bromham. "If they're not birthing 300,000 calves in the three-week period, they're leaping into rivers for 20 (feet) up."
Wildebeests may have been making the trek for millions of years, coping with disease, drought and predators. "It would be astonishing and wondrous to watch the gnu migrations go by," said Mr Neil deGrasse Tyson, a panelist and astrophysicist.
Those lucky enough to travel here see wild animals in their purest state. On the East African plains, you'll see animals like the lions, elephants, giraffes, and lots of wildebeests/gnu. Guide Gerald Selempo told "Good Morning America's Weekend Edition" anchor Kate Snow that area residents had a nickname for the gnu.
Wildebeest, the clown of the plains
"They call them 'the clowns,' because when you look at a wildebeest he looks like he was made up of the leftovers of all the other animals," Selempo said. "They have a head like that of a buffalo, have tail of a horse. They have legs of an antelope. They just don't look very balanced."
But the wildebeests do bring balance to this fragile ecosystem. They are the heart and soul of the Great Migration - the key to survival on the vast plains. "Without the gnu migration, it's harder to conceive Serengeti-Mara being what it is today," Hirji said. "Everything else survives within that migration."
The gnu herds follow the rain. "They just move and hopefully wherever they are going. The wildebeests can get as much grass and as much water as possible," Mr Selempo said. After spending the late summer and early fall in the north, here in the Masai Mara, dry land and lack of food forces the wildebeest herds south to the Serengeti, which is lush with new grass.
There's even a pattern to the way they eat. First, the zebras come. "The zebra seems to be eating the top grass," Mr Selempo said. "The wildebeests go for the middle and then the other animals. - Like the gazelles, go for the lowest part."
The treacherous routes of wildebeest migration
It's not always easy. With the circle of life, comes the promise of death. Lions, cheetahs and leopards look forward to the wildebeest herds' arrival. Wildebeests are easy prey for a big cat, and once the predators are done, the vultures move in to clear away the leftovers.
Sometimes the migrating wildebeests seal their own fate. One group of wildebeests starts out going south, but are then distracted when they sense rain to the north. The result can be crossing a river filled with unfriendly crocodiles. It happens over and over again. They'll have to crisscross the river several times, sometimes 10, 20 times, depending on which direction they are going," Mr Selempo said.
But the miracle of the Great gnu Migration is that the animals mysteriously find their way. No one knows exactly how far back the wildebeest migration dates, perhaps millions of years. But one change in the environment here can trigger enormous consequences.
Not even disease will finish gnu numbers
In the early 1900s, a savage disease cut through Africa, and drastically reduced the wildebeest herds from two million to just a few hundred thousand. Then, a devastating drought in the 1990s decimated the gnu population even further. "If the climate changes drastically, then this whole equilibrium, this whole tune up, this whole finely tuned movement is going to be thrown out of phase," Hirji said.
The wildebeest population is stable again and is more than a million strong. In the late winter and early spring, the gnu herds move to their version of a maternity ward – in the nutrient-rich south. It's the only place on the gnu migration route where wildebeests can successfully have babies. And they do; 300,000 calves are born in just three weeks.
Over 300,000 gnu births in a space of 3 weeks
Those new babies join their parents, the zebras, and other migratory animals making the turn north and following the rains again, a never-ending circle reminding man of the wonder of life. Kenya Film Commission managing director Wachira Waruru and Mr Ong'ong'a Achieng of the Kenya Tourism Board helped facilitate the filming by ABC.
They won the cooperation of the Narok County Council, and also got the Communications Commission of Kenya to substantially reduce the fees payable by ABC for the live satellite feed from the Maasai Mara to the US.
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