The Mara–Loita migration collapses by about 81%
The separate Kenyan Mara–Loita wildebeest population fell from 123,930 animals in 1977–78 to under 20,000 by 2016, a decline of about 80.9%, driven principally by mechanised wheat farming spreading across the Loita Plains from the early 1980s and by fencing and settlement. The neighbouring Athi–Kaputiei migration collapsed further still, by roughly 95%.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) · species · Tanzania; Kenya · not located
- Maasai Mara National Reserve · game reserve · Kenya
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Long-term aerial monitoring of Kenyan wildebeest populations: Mara–Loita and Athi–Kaputiei
The Mara–Loita wildebeest population fell about 80.9% from 123,930 in 1977–78 to under 20,000 by 2016, and the Athi–Kaputiei population by about 95%, driven by mechanised wheat farming, fencing, settlement and infrastructure
Kenya Directorate of Resource Surveys and Remote Sensing series, analysed by J. O. Ogutu and colleagues (University of Hohenheim) · survey series 1977–2016+ · Partly verified
Ogutu J.O. and colleagues, analyses of the Kenyan DRSRS aerial survey series; summarised in Ogutu et al., 'Wildebeest migrations in East Africa face extinction. What must be done', The Conversation, 2019, and in CMS, 'Fact Sheet on Wildebeest Migration', https://www.cms.int/publication/fact-sheet-wildbeest-migration
Recorded on Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)
- Rinderpest disappears from the Serengeti–Mara ecosystem
- The wildebeest population irrupts from roughly 250,000 to over a million
- The Mara–Loita migration collapses by about 81%
- Edge degradation squeezes wildlife into the ecosystem core
- Kenya bans sport hunting nationwide
- Drought kills roughly a quarter of the wildebeest population
- AI satellite survey returns fewer than 600,000, and is contested
- TAWIRI Aerial Point Survey estimates 1,366,109 wildebeest
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- TAWIRI Aerial Point Survey estimates 1,366,109 wildebeest · 2023
- AI satellite survey returns fewer than 600,000, and is contested · 2022–2023 imagery; published 2025
- Drought kills roughly a quarter of the wildebeest population · 1993–1994
- Edge degradation squeezes wildlife into the ecosystem core · c. 1977–2018 (40-year record)
- Kenya bans sport hunting nationwide · 1977
- The wildebeest population irrupts from roughly 250,000 to over a million · 1963–1977
- Rinderpest disappears from the Serengeti–Mara ecosystem · c. 1960–1964