Serengeti Wildebeest or gnuts, are a genus of antelopes, which belongs to the family of Bovidae, which comprises of antelopes, cattle, goats and sheeps and other even-toed horned ungulates. They play a vital role in shaping the ecosystem as their excrement fertilize the land the crop the grass while being a prey to lions, cheetahs and the like.
The recently migration of more than 1 million wildebeest from the Maasai Mara in Kenya was broadcasted on September 29 to October 5 by a team from Herd. They showed the 200,000 zebras, gazelle, eland and impala on the move of migration.
The Serengeti Wildebeest migration started from June until October, wherein they impressively cross the Mara River. This is one of the largest terrestrial mammal migrations that has been the most famous in the world and is one of the Africa's Seven Natural Wonders list.
In this migration, Serengeti wildebeest goes through risk and endanger their lives especially as they cross the Mara River. Their lives are at risk as they stampede through the water while crocodiles are waiting for the river to snatch the younger or weaker ones for a meal.
Other than that, because of the deforestation in the watershed over the past years, the current of the running water in Mara River has been dangerously high. Suzi Eszterhas, an American photographer documented the annual perilous journey of wildebeest in the year 2006-2009. She stated that she had observed that "each wildebeests jump and plunge into the running water, then another one would follow until they were all in the water-in a long line of wildebeest surging across. Some of them make it to the crossing, but others were taken by the downstream even in a single crossing, at least 5,000 of them died due to running gushing waters."
Moreover, after their annual migration they face another threat as large connected landscapes should be available which is currently difficult to provide, especially humans compete as well. It would not endanger their lives alone for scarcity of food or landscapes, but even affects the individuals even to death.
