Good news about African wildlife! Vast migration discovered; threatened by oil development

[HamdenRice]

Sudan has mainly been in the news because of the atrocities being committed in Darfur, but Sudan has had civil war of one kind or another virtually since its independence. Civil wars in Africa have tended to be catastrophic for wildlife, because the collapse of civil authority has meant that game parks collapse and there are no game wardens to protect animal populations from poachers. Also, poorly paid or unpaid, hungry soldiers often turn to scavenging wildlife in order to survive.

For this reason, wildlife biologists suspected that the animals of the southern Sudan, which has been closed to scientists since the early 1980s because of civil war, had been wiped out. There were rumors from bush pilots that there were almost no animals left.

As a result of a recent peace treaty, wildlife biologists have been able to resume work in southern Sudan, and one of the first things they have accomplished was surveys of wildlife populations in the region.

Malik Marjan, a Sudanese graduate student at the University of Massachusetts, conducted the first ground survey in Boma National Park, and he was later joined by two scientists from the National Geographic Society. The area they surveyed consisted of grasslands, grassy swamps and savannah that rest between the fringes of the Sahara to the north and the tropical rain forest to the south. The area is also home to some of Sudan's non-Muslim African populations, who have traversed these areas with their cattle for generations.

What the conservationists found astonished them: southern Sudan's wildlife was healthy -- so healthy that it may contain the largest animal migration on earth, larger even than the wildebeest migration of the Serengeti, which until this survey of the southern Sudan was considered the largest wildlife migration in the world:

<quote>

“It’s so far beyond anything you’ve ever seen, you can’t believe it,” Dr. Fay said. “You think you’re hallucinating.”

...

The white-eared kob were joined by hundreds of thousands of mongalla gazelles and tiang, a species of antelope. They formed a gigantic column that stretched 30 miles across and 50 miles long. “It was just solid animals the whole way,” Dr. Fay said.

...

Other animals are also thriving in parts of Southern Sudan, including elephants, ostriches, lions, leopards, hippos and buffalo. Biologists have even spotted oryx, which were thought to be extinct.

<unquote>



Unfortunately, with the signing of peace accords, the southern Sudan is poised for oil development, and oil companies are already building roads into these pristine grasslands and forests. By contrast, conservationists hope that southern Sudan's recovery might be based on eco-tourism.

You can read more about it here in the NY Times:


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/12/science/12migr.html?em&ex=1181793600&en=9a6a2b989eb3dadc&ei=5070

[ellie]

1. Kicking for the animals

[A HERETIC I AM]

2. Stop kicking the animals.

Have you no shame?:P

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. lol

[HamdenRice]

4. If someone were kicking the animals ...

this post would have lots of K&Rs, but good news doesn't sell it seems.

[TZ]

5. Well I like good news about animals....

so here is my K&R!
:kick:

[entanglement]

6. I'm delighted to hear that

:)

[Control-Z]

7. So nice to hear this

I love a little good news for a change.

[smiley_glad_hands]

8. Anyone ever think that they may be hiding there?

We just let cat out of the bag.

edited to note sarcasm

[eppur_se_muova]

9. BBC has some more pix ... (linx)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=99845&mesg_id=99845

but the NY TImes elephant herd pic is probably the nicest shot.

[roguevalley]

10. this is so good. aren't the elephants wonderful? i adore them. this

is good news after finding out that one of the last two wild white rhinos was poached. they have a standing order to shoot poachers on sight. I hope that poacher understands God's wrath some day.

[robinlynne]

11. Maybe they are alive because of the demise of so many humans....

[Duppers]

12. great news!

for someone who cried when watching "Out of Africa" this is wonderful news.