cruisinred

"Global Warming: Bad News for Gnus"

http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...669552,00.html

(sorry if someone else has already posted this...)

atravelynn

Disturbing. Thank you. Wonder if any recent returnees saw this.

mkhonzo

The wonderful thing about freedom of speech is that it allows one to appreciate conflicting views, digest and assimilate and then turf them out or store them in the old gray matter.

I found this article hardly worth keeping.

If there had to have been a drought it probably would have been blamed on global warming too. I am however inclined to believe that natural selection is the greater sorcerer in this instance and that the 1% of the wildebeest population elected a poor crossing because of their stupidty and in fact by perishing served to maintain the gene pool of the population for a little longer.

Similarly if this is global warming and it is decimating the wildebeest population then it has got to be an absolute boon for the pesky crocodiles that have survived since the dinosaurs, who seem to be the beneficiaries of this man made global phenomenon. I suspect that many other scavenger species are rubbing their collective "paws" at the floating buffet the weather gods just served them. kicked some croc ***s and of course shrugged off a few feline predators to maintain the strength of the gene pool for a little longer!

mkhonzo

And my delete turned out to be a 'post my reply"... truncating my last thought, which effectively was that the remaining 990 000 wildebeest must be heralded "Einstiens" of the species for electing the right crossing. Or perhaps they are better the "Hercules" of the species as they must have had the physical form and athleticism to maintain in this torrent beast of a river.

A final thought: Man is already manipulating, through seasonal burns of the mara, the migration and probably has been doing so for years. I believe that it is no longer just habitual burning by the masai, but now is a practice encouraged by the lodges to entice the migration to stay a little longer.... Can it be?

kenyatraveler

More politically correct nonsense. Weather cycles have occured over the last half million years. routs, floods, disease, etc., happen. I just got back and saw two herds cross. Two wilderbeests were goners out of three herds. Even ugly crocs need to eat. I did see many dead wildebeests on the shore under the bridge being eaten by the vultures(boy, did it stink). Don't worry about 1% of the wildebeests, I also saw hundreds of newborns who will fill the ranks. Remember Darwin and survival of the fittest, not some wacky scientist and a politically correct Time magazine.

DonTopaz

What a silly and uninformed article. Far more than 1% of wildebeest die each year during the migration.

Next thing people will want is to build a bridge at the main river crossings to help the dear things get across and back safely.

sandi

Guess they had to fill space. A politically correct headline attention getter! Only 1% during river crossings? Overall, it's more than that the entire migration route and year-round, to boot. Survival of the fittest for sure.