Rinderpest disappears from the Serengeti–Mara ecosystem
Mass vaccination of cattle, which had acted as the reservoir, removed rinderpest from the ecosystem by about 1964. The virus had suppressed wildebeest and buffalo numbers for decades; its removal released the constraint and set up the population irruption that follows.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) · species · Tanzania; Kenya · not located
- Serengeti National Park · national park · Tanzania
Evidence
Verified — Every field is supported by a cited authoritative source.
Food regulates the Serengeti wildebeest: a 40-year record
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
Journal of Animal Ecology (British Ecological Society) · 1999 · Verified
Mduma S.A.R., Sinclair A.R.E. & Hilborn R. (1999) 'Food regulates the Serengeti wildebeest: a 40-year record', Journal of Animal Ecology 68(6): 1101–1122, doi:10.1046/j.1365-2656.1999.00352.x
Recorded on Blue Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus)
- Serengeti National Park established on land used by Maasai pastoralists
- Serengeti closed to residence; Ngorongoro Conservation Area created and Maasai evicted from the plains
- 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
- Serengeti National Park inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List
- 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
- Serengeti National Park inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List · 1981
- The Mara–Loita migration collapses by about 81% · 1977–2016
- Edge degradation squeezes wildlife into the ecosystem core · c. 1977–2018 (40-year record)
- The wildebeest population irrupts from roughly 250,000 to over a million · 1963–1977
- Serengeti closed to residence; Ngorongoro Conservation Area created and Maasai evicted from the plains · 1959