Kenya throws zebras to the lions
Kenya is rounding up zebras and moving them to drought-stricken Amboseli Park so the lions will have enough food.
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By Tristan McConnell - GlobalPost
Published: March 8, 2010 07:38 ET in Africa
Published: March 8, 2010 07:38 ET in Africa
SOYSAMBU CONSERVANCY, Kenya — Hidden among the umbrella-shaped acacia trees are walls of dull tarpaulin which form a funnel toward the ramp of a truck that waits with its back door open. It is chilly and quiet in the break-of-dawn light. Khaki-clad wildlife rangers wait in silence clutching long switches hacked from trees.
Suddenly the morning hush is shattered by the thumping blades of a helicopter swooping low over the trees, then the sound of dozens of panicked hooves battering the dusty earth.
Chased by the chopper the zebras charge into the tarpaulin trap. Once inside rangers use sticks and shouts to cajole the frantic wild black and white horses along the narrowing tunnel toward the truck. In this way the first truck is loaded with 21 of the stamping snorting animals and the second with 19.
Herding just 40 of the zebras took an hour and a half of slow, frustrating work as the spooked animals would often scatter before reaching the trap or, spotting the tarpaulin or the rangers, would bolt in another direction.
The early morning expedition was the start of a huge undertaking to transport 7,000 zebras and wildebeest from across to Kenya to the drought-stricken Amboseli National Park in the south.
“We are doing this translocation to restock Amboseli,” said Isaac Lekolool, the vet in charge of animal capture and translocation at Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the government body responsible for the country’s diverse animals and 33 national parks and reserves.
“Last year we lost most of the herbivores. It was a bad year for Amboseli and a bad year for Kenya.” This also meant it was a bad year for lions and a bad year for tourism.
Drought has killed off most of the lions’ prey forcing them to hunt outside Amboseli park. They often seize goats and cows, bringing the lions into conflict with farmers and herders who fiercely protect the herds upon whom they also depend for survival.
An estimated 100 lions are killed every year by angry herders and with only 2,000 remaining they are a top conservation priority for KWS.
The drought also hit tourism as horrified visitors to Amboseli saw rotting corpses and whiting bones strewn across the parched landscape while the stench of decomposing animals filled the air.
“Amboseli is a tourist facility and if the tourists come and they don’t see animals they are not happy,” Lekolool told GlobalPost.
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Now isn't that sad... or...
Now isn't that sad... or... pathetic, rather. Humankind is, by all accounts, a living, persistent E.L.E. - a hazard to the planet and to whatever inhabits it - including themselves. A few lines below this comment box a button labeled "Global Green" - isn't it heartbreaking how everyone is so very concerned about nature, recently? You must love it! Always underline the cozy, nice side of things. "Global Green, save our beautiful planet" surely attracts more people than "Global Warming, it's too late to save the planet, come and see what mankind has done and what distant stone we have set rolling that is now unstoppably coming towards our present".
Now that mankind has phlegmatically and succesfully exterminated hundreds of species already, and has set the future for hundreds still to become extinct, they are spending millions to feed the poor lions.
One might be easily tempted to pity these poor Kenyans, for they are probably the least responsible party in this dilemma of Global Warming and droughts. But when one does so, one will find that at the second glance they aren't only not investing Millions of USD only for their own benefit - namely to keep the tourists coming - instead for protecting wildlife (not said, that they wouldn't want to protect wildlife, but the Millions flow because it's tourism - not lions - at stake), but that if you put these poor Kenyans into large factories with a lot of capitalism arround them, it would be them, destroying the planet.
Humans don't change and they really aren't that different either. Again, it's striking how we witness the effects of our western/northern economy first impacting in regions far away from the cause.
Too bad, a few dead humans in a killing spree at XYZ-University are far more interesting than a million dead animals in the burning heat of the savanna. Too bad, having a trendy I-Phone is worth far more than spending one's money on saving the planet. Too bad, stories about a golf-player cheating on his wife are so much more appealing than the tragedy annihilating our very own future.
Too bad, otherwise such things would receive more coverage on MTV, CNN and alike - but no one wants to hear or see about it.
Thanks Global Post (authors respectively) at last.
As the previous person
As the previous person commented, this story is SO sad to read and/or hear about...not that anyone is actually talking about it. Our Earth consists of these beautiful creatures, including Zebras. To know that humans are deliberately throwing them to the wolves (in this case lions) is disgusting to me. Its not as though they were found in the wild and it was a survival of the fittest scenario. We, humans, are playing G_d and it is utterly wrong.
- Maurizio Maranghi -
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
This headline is misleading.
This headline is misleading. It sounds like they Kenyans are literally capturing zebras and throwing them to the lions. That's not what is happening. The zebras are being relocated to the lion habitat where both species will have an opportunity to flourish. Sure, some zebras will be eaten, but the majority will breed and replenish the food chain so the lions can survive. I have no problem with this. It actually sounds like smart game management.
Flourish? Like the last
Flourish? Like the last generation that "flourished" in the drought?
The point is, that this is nothing but a short term strategy that sacrifices the lifes of hundreds of zebras. What you think was "smart game management" has proven to be utterly wrong decades over decades and attempts over attempts before this one.
I bet there were people who called Thomas Austin a "smart gambler" when he first brought rabbits to Australia. What gambling with ecosystems usually results in, is well documented.
The general lesson we neglect to learn is that selfish and impulsive measures will mostly not do anything good for the long term. You relocate 7,000 zebtras today and thereby kill a gross few hundred and save a few lions from starving. The weather will not get better over night, the droughts will likely be hitting the area with increased frequency over the coming decades.
What will you do? Keep shipping zebras in, until there are none left in the prior reserve?
You sign as the protector of these lions against a threat which you cannot stop (Global Warming) and thereby set the foundation for a struggle that will last until you either relocate the lions or come to accept that the reserve with all its inhabitant fell victim to mankind.
Poor lions, should we have let them die? Yes. Poor lions. Humans killed them, not the drought did. Attempts to stabilize ecosystems have failure in tail. That's because ecosystems are stable, even when they happen not to be in equilibrium. Nature seeks the next best stable state.
When you pull the last block from a Jenga tower, it goes into the next best stable state, which is collapsed.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Jenga.gif
People need to accept the consequences to their or, in this case, anyone's actions. The zebras died, the ecosystem in the region is collapsing to it's next best stable state, without lions or zebras. Global Warming makes things come apart: Islands drown in the rising sea, regions dry out and populations die. Don't try to push the block back into the tower while it's already falling.
Yes, actually, it is smart
Yes, actually, it is smart game management. They're moving the Zebras from an area where they are populating without the check of the predators who help prevent overpopulation to an area where lions are disappearing because the herds are disappearing. The zebras will do what zebras do and the lions will do what lions do and both species will benefit. And, by the way, there is no such thing as global warming. The emails released by the University of East Anglia clearly show that the data was cooked to achieve the end result. The data actually shows that the world has been cooling for the last ten years, not warming. It's all a political hoax -- just like zebras being fed to the lions.
Let me guess: You are an
Let me guess:
You are an US-American.
You consider yourself a Republican.
You have no clue of science whatsoever, nor an own, qualified opinion.
All you know about Global Warming is what your favorite tabloid paper tells you on the page with the latest scandals and the newest sports cars. You are like a leaf in the wind and happily drift along with the US-American public and its cartoon-like idea of what they think the world is.
Am I right?
I respect your opinion on the actions taken in Kenya, but if you repeat your opinion on Global Warming I will puke over your ignorance. Please don't state such utter nonsense as long as you have no clue of what you are talking about.
Now let me guess: You are a
Now let me guess:
You are a left leaning Euro socialist and you have no tolerance for anyone with a view contrary to your own.
Anyone with an opinion different from yours obviously has no clue of science whatsoever.
You've completely ignored any suggestion, such as the now exposed emails from East Anglia University, that the evidence on global warming has been modified to fit a political agenda. Everyone MUST conform to your "enlightened" view of the world.
The puke comment says much more than you think. I am surprised the moderator of this website allowed it.
Have I got this
Have I got this right?.......Zebra's are being moved to feed lions in a drought area that in the foreseeable future is still gonna be a drought area?..........choppers cost how much an hour?.....fine.....when's it gonna rain and look beautiful there for tourists?.......Uh, we don't know......how many meetings, "projects" beers? is it gonna take until some genius figures out move the Lions to the Zebras....after this post there will be "valid" reasons why this is unworkable AKA "bits of tree & choppers can't control Lions"........"It's the lions home" We have a planet change and if you can't drive what are you doing on the highway?
That's another way of looking
That's another way of looking at it, Merlin, but I think it's a lot less dangerous catching Zebras and herding them into trucks than it is with lions. As in life, it is much easier to herd frightened animals to the slaughter than a free-thinking predator. Or something like that. Anyway, I think you get the picture; Be a lion, not a lamb. And I hope the Kenyans and the zebras and the lions all live well and prosper.
As one commented above the
As one commented above the headline is misleading. It sounds like they Kenyans are literally capturing zebras and throwing them to the lions. That's not what is happening. The zebras are being relocated to the lion habitat where both species will have an opportunity to flourish. That's true. That's call the nature.
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Even though the heading is
Even though the heading is misleading but an interesting post.
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This is bit unusual post. But
This is bit unusual post. But worth reading it.
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An interesting post to go
An interesting post to go through. Thanks for sharing.
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