Members of the tourism industry in Kenya’s Maasai Mara have strongly denied claims that the Serengeti Migration may not enter the area this year.
It was reported in allafrica.com that the migration may not enter the Maasai Mara due to factors such as increasing human activity and climate change.
The report quoted experts from the Serengeti National Park as saying that time spent by the animals in the Maasai Mara had been falling from two months to just a few weeks in recent years, with the shortest time recorded last year when the animals stayed in Kenya for less than two weeks.
"Increasing human activities at Maasai Mara, which is the Kenyan side of the Serengeti eco-system, is what causes the annual migration of wildebeest to reduce and eventually stop going into the vicinity altogether," said Godson Kimaro the Senior Park Warden at Serengeti National Park. He also mentioned a scientific study report by the Frankfurt Zoological Society that had warned of imminent changes in the wildebeests’ migratory patterns in future.
Seth Mihayo, the Tourism Conservator at Serengeti National Park, said the area was also suffering from mushrooming hotel premises, real estate developments and human activities such as cattle grazing, all of which added to the effects that scared animals away. He said climate change was also taking toll on the area.
“This is the first time I am hearing of this … it is not true that the migration last year was only in Mara for two weeks! It lasted all through August, having come in late July. In fact there were some stragglers in September,” said Munene Ngotho, General Manager Fairmont Mara Safari Club.
“I have been in the Mara when the migration was considered to have failed some years back and that was because there was a devastating drought in Kenya that saw many animals, especially hippopotami, buffalo and other large herbivores dying from hunger. If this were to repeat itself, then yes, but if the status quo remains, then the migration will happen,” continued Ngotho.
“Interestingly, I note all the comments are only from Serengeti scientists and Tanzania tourism people, even though the criticisms are on the Maasai Mara end. Concrete scientific evidence or studies are lacking in this statement. People on the ground in Mara would be the best to counter or support what’s written here. I have witnessed the migration every year for the past 42 years and I look forward to seeing it again this year,” said David W Stogdale, Managing Director, Great Plains Conservation East Africa.
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