Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)

Assembled from 75 blocks · 4 evidence · 43 related

1. Story
2. A large grazing bovid whose western Serengeti–Mara population performs the largest surviving terrestrial mammal migration. The TAWIRI 2023 Aerial Point Survey estimated 1,366,109 animals (95% interval approximately 1,134,368–1,597,850), consistent with the roughly 1.3 million figure aerial surveys have returned since the 1970s. An independent 2022–2023 AI satellite survey (Duporge et al., PNAS Nexus 2025) counted fewer than 600,000, a result that specialists including Grant Hopcraft and Joseph Ogutu have publicly disputed as an abundance estimate. The species as a whole is assessed Least Concern by the IUCN (2016), a global status that says nothing about the migratory behaviour, which is the thing actually at risk.
3. Knowledge
4. Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)
5. Serengeti National Park
6. Mara River
7. Southern Serengeti Short-Grass Plains
8. Serengeti–Mara Rainfall Gradient
9. Thomson's Gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii)
10. Western Corridor and Grumeti Reserves
11. Connections
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. Serengeti National Park
36. Drought kills roughly a quarter of the wildebeest population
37. Edge degradation squeezes wildlife into the ecosystem core
38. Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)
39. Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)
40. The herds cross the Grumeti River in the western corridor
41. Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)
42. Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)
43. Ngorongoro Conservation Area — Western Plains
44. Synchronised Wildebeest Calving
45. Volcanic Ash Soils of the Southern Plains
46. The calving pulse on the short-grass plains
47. Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)
48. Maasai Mara National Reserve
49. Mara River
50. Serengeti–Mara Rainfall Gradient
51. Serengeti Biodiversity Programme
52. Rinderpest disappears from the Serengeti–Mara ecosystem
53. The wildebeest population irrupts from roughly 250,000 to over a million
54. Serengeti National Park inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List
55. Drought kills roughly a quarter of the wildebeest population
56. Edge degradation squeezes wildlife into the ecosystem core
57. The Mara River crossings
58. TAWIRI Aerial Point Survey estimates 1,366,109 wildebeest
59. AI satellite survey returns fewer than 600,000, and is contested
60. Ngorongoro Conservation Area
61. Maasai
62. Fortress conservation
63. Serengeti National Park established on land used by Maasai pastoralists
64. Serengeti closed to residence; Ngorongoro Conservation Area created and Maasai evicted from the plains
65. Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)
66. Maasai Mara National Reserve
67. Serengeti National Park
68. Mara River Crossings
69. Mara River Crossings
70. The Mara River crossings
71. Evidence
72. The migratory wildebeest population was estimated at 1,366,109 animals in 2023 by manual triple-count aerial point survey
73. An independent satellite-plus-AI count of 2022 and 2023 imagery returned fewer than 600,000 migratory wildebeest, a result the authors frame as complementary to aerial survey and which named Serengeti census specialists dispute
74. 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
75. Global conservation status for the species involved, and the caveat that global Least Concern status does not describe the risk to the migratory behaviour itself