Drought kills roughly a quarter of the wildebeest population

Assembled from 57 blocks · 1 evidence · 42 related

1. Story
2. A prolonged drought in 1993 caused severe starvation; roughly 250,000 of about 1.5 million wildebeest died, and dry-season calf survival fell to around 73% against 98.5% in the wet season. Mduma, Sinclair and Hilborn used this episode as the clearest demonstration that dry-season food, not predation and not the river, regulates the population.
3. Knowledge
4. Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)
5. Serengeti National Park
6. Serengeti–Mara Rainfall Gradient
7. Drought kills roughly a quarter of the wildebeest population
8. Connections
9. Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)
10. Serengeti National Park
11. Serengeti–Mara Rainfall Gradient
12. Serengeti–Mara Rainfall Gradient
13. Thomson's Gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii)
14. Western Corridor and Grumeti Reserves
15. Southern Serengeti Short-Grass Plains
16. Serengeti National Park
17. Southern Serengeti Short-Grass Plains
18. Mara River
19. Plains Zebra (Equus quagga)
20. Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus)
21. Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta)
22. Serengeti Biodiversity Programme
23. Rinderpest disappears from the Serengeti–Mara ecosystem
24. The wildebeest population irrupts from roughly 250,000 to over a million
25. Drought kills roughly a quarter of the wildebeest population
26. The Mara–Loita migration collapses by about 81%
27. Edge degradation squeezes wildlife into the ecosystem core
28. The rut
29. The calving pulse on the short-grass plains
30. The herds cross the Grumeti River in the western corridor
31. The Mara River crossings
32. TAWIRI Aerial Point Survey estimates 1,366,109 wildebeest
33. AI satellite survey returns fewer than 600,000, and is contested
34. Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)
35. Maasai Mara National Reserve
36. Mara River
37. Serengeti–Mara Rainfall Gradient
38. Serengeti Biodiversity Programme
39. Rinderpest disappears from the Serengeti–Mara ecosystem
40. The wildebeest population irrupts from roughly 250,000 to over a million
41. Serengeti National Park inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List
42. Drought kills roughly a quarter of the wildebeest population
43. Edge degradation squeezes wildlife into the ecosystem core
44. The Mara River crossings
45. TAWIRI Aerial Point Survey estimates 1,366,109 wildebeest
46. AI satellite survey returns fewer than 600,000, and is contested
47. Ngorongoro Conservation Area
48. Maasai
49. Fortress conservation
50. Serengeti National Park established on land used by Maasai pastoralists
51. Serengeti closed to residence; Ngorongoro Conservation Area created and Maasai evicted from the plains
52. Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)
53. Serengeti National Park
54. Drought kills roughly a quarter of the wildebeest population
55. Edge degradation squeezes wildlife into the ecosystem core
56. Evidence
57. Dry-season food supply, not predation, regulates the Serengeti wildebeest population — demonstrated across the post-rinderpest irruption, the 1977–1993 plateau and the 1993–94 drought die-off