For Wildebeests, Danger Ahead

Africa's wildebeest migration pits a million thundering animals against a gantlet of perils, even—some experts fear—climate change

  • By Robert M. Poole
  • Photographs by Suzi Eszterhas
  • Smithsonian magazine, May 2010, Subscribe
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Wildebeest migration
"The numbers are incredible," says photographer Suzi Eszterhas of the multitudes of migrating wildebeests that cross from Tanzania to Kenya and back each year. (Suzi Eszterhas)

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When the grass turns brittle and the streams run dry, the wildebeests grow restless. Milling in uneasy circles, scanning the horizon, sniffing the air for distant scents, the shaggy animals move slowly north, looking for the rains that bring new grass—and the promise of life for a population numbering some 1.2 million animals.

“It’s amazing how keyed in they are to the rains,” says Suzi Eszterhas, an American photographer who has lived among the wildebeests for years to document their perilous annual journey, which covers about a thousand looping miles. From the broad Serengeti grasslands on the plains of Tanzania, the wildebeests trudge west through low hills toward Lake Victoria, then northeast to the Masai Mara National Reserve in southern Kenya, a crucial refuge for water and grass in the July to November dry season.

“In the dry season, you see them bunch up on the plains,” says Eszterhas. “The sky is empty except for one faraway rain cloud and—boom—within an hour they’re off in a mass, thousands of wildebeests moving as one, all heading for that single cloud. The earth shudders when they go—you feel their migration as much as you hear or see it.”

Most of it takes place within the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, a patchwork of national parks, game preserves and conservation areas sprawling over some 10,000 square miles in Tanzania and Kenya. Wildebeests, also known as gnus, shape the ecosystem as they move. They crop grass and fertilize the land with their droppings, while lions, cheetahs, hyenas, crocodiles and other predators depend on them for protein.

Thousands of the ungainly, horned animals fall prey to predators each year, while others perish from broken bones and drowning. One of the most hazardous moments comes when the herd must swim across the Mara River, shortly after passing from Tanzania into Kenya. “Nobody knows why they pick a particular site to cross,” says Eszterhas. “It’s not always the same crossing and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. They congregate on the far side, running back and forth, crowding along the bank. They are so skittish when they come to the crossing.”

And for good reason. Crocodiles position themselves nearby, picking off the animals as they flail in the water. Added to this, over the past three years, the Mara River has been running dangerously high, in part because of deforestation in the watershed. Eszterhas was on the bank of the river to meet the wildebeests during the migrations of 2006 through 2009. Camping in Kenya, she parked her Jeep beside the river for 12 or 13 hours a day and hid behind vegetation. “After several false starts, one animal would take the plunge, diving down the bank for the river, then another and another would follow. I was amazed that most of them survived that leap down the bank. Soon they were all in the water, this long line of wildebeests surging across. One would get in trouble, try to turn back in the swift current, and cause others to pile up at the crossing. You’d see the current take so many of them downstream—in a single crossing, at least 5,000 died because of the high waters. It was heartbreaking.”

With human populations booming in East Africa, some scientists have expressed concern that the pressures of development, deforestation and poaching could challenge the wildebeest. The herd reached a near-historic peak of 1.5 million a decade ago and is now down to 1.2 million. The population may also be affected by more intense variations in seasonal flooding and drought, which might be the result of climate change, according to Mark E. Ritchie, a biologist at Syracuse University.

“There are a lot of maybes,” he cautions. “But there is some scientific support that the downward trend in wildebeest numbers could very well be attributed to climate change.” As the Indian Ocean warms and prevailing winds transport moisture over East Africa, more intense periods of rain and drought result, raising the prospect of a new threat to the Serengeti’s keystone species and its migration. “It is very disturbing to think that the migration might be interrupted,” says Eszterhas.

Robert M. Poole is contributing editor at Smithsonian. California-based photographer Suzi Eszterhas travels often to Africa to document wildlife.


When the grass turns brittle and the streams run dry, the wildebeests grow restless. Milling in uneasy circles, scanning the horizon, sniffing the air for distant scents, the shaggy animals move slowly north, looking for the rains that bring new grass—and the promise of life for a population numbering some 1.2 million animals.

“It’s amazing how keyed in they are to the rains,” says Suzi Eszterhas, an American photographer who has lived among the wildebeests for years to document their perilous annual journey, which covers about a thousand looping miles. From the broad Serengeti grasslands on the plains of Tanzania, the wildebeests trudge west through low hills toward Lake Victoria, then northeast to the Masai Mara National Reserve in southern Kenya, a crucial refuge for water and grass in the July to November dry season.

“In the dry season, you see them bunch up on the plains,” says Eszterhas. “The sky is empty except for one faraway rain cloud and—boom—within an hour they’re off in a mass, thousands of wildebeests moving as one, all heading for that single cloud. The earth shudders when they go—you feel their migration as much as you hear or see it.”

Most of it takes place within the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, a patchwork of national parks, game preserves and conservation areas sprawling over some 10,000 square miles in Tanzania and Kenya. Wildebeests, also known as gnus, shape the ecosystem as they move. They crop grass and fertilize the land with their droppings, while lions, cheetahs, hyenas, crocodiles and other predators depend on them for protein.

Thousands of the ungainly, horned animals fall prey to predators each year, while others perish from broken bones and drowning. One of the most hazardous moments comes when the herd must swim across the Mara River, shortly after passing from Tanzania into Kenya. “Nobody knows why they pick a particular site to cross,” says Eszterhas. “It’s not always the same crossing and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. They congregate on the far side, running back and forth, crowding along the bank. They are so skittish when they come to the crossing.”

And for good reason. Crocodiles position themselves nearby, picking off the animals as they flail in the water. Added to this, over the past three years, the Mara River has been running dangerously high, in part because of deforestation in the watershed. Eszterhas was on the bank of the river to meet the wildebeests during the migrations of 2006 through 2009. Camping in Kenya, she parked her Jeep beside the river for 12 or 13 hours a day and hid behind vegetation. “After several false starts, one animal would take the plunge, diving down the bank for the river, then another and another would follow. I was amazed that most of them survived that leap down the bank. Soon they were all in the water, this long line of wildebeests surging across. One would get in trouble, try to turn back in the swift current, and cause others to pile up at the crossing. You’d see the current take so many of them downstream—in a single crossing, at least 5,000 died because of the high waters. It was heartbreaking.”

With human populations booming in East Africa, some scientists have expressed concern that the pressures of development, deforestation and poaching could challenge the wildebeest. The herd reached a near-historic peak of 1.5 million a decade ago and is now down to 1.2 million. The population may also be affected by more intense variations in seasonal flooding and drought, which might be the result of climate change, according to Mark E. Ritchie, a biologist at Syracuse University.

“There are a lot of maybes,” he cautions. “But there is some scientific support that the downward trend in wildebeest numbers could very well be attributed to climate change.” As the Indian Ocean warms and prevailing winds transport moisture over East Africa, more intense periods of rain and drought result, raising the prospect of a new threat to the Serengeti’s keystone species and its migration. “It is very disturbing to think that the migration might be interrupted,” says Eszterhas.

Robert M. Poole is contributing editor at Smithsonian. California-based photographer Suzi Eszterhas travels often to Africa to document wildlife.

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Comments (8)

Outstanding photographs by a very talented young lady.

Posted by Mack Robertson on April 19,2012 | 09:12 PM

Life is a circle....and not just a song in an animated movie. The Wildebeest are an integral part of the web and as their world changes, so does the entire world. As we, the humans, change the world, so does the entire world change because of our actions, choices and enterprise. As we,'man the wise', alters each and every environment, so the Wildebeest and the croc and the herons and the elephants and the swallows and all of life, feel the weight of this one species, homo materialist, on Earth and our populations and our waste and our greed.

Posted by Jeanie on August 7,2010 | 12:52 PM

The gauzy background and the airborne bodies of the animals in Eszterhas' beautiful rendition caused me also to immediately comment to my Dad that it reminded me of cave paintings. All her images here reflected masterly composition. I also especially enjoyed the panorama of "Wildebeest on New Grass" with the soft-focused acacias framed against the hills in the background. The wildebeest pair trudging through a downpour (on the table of contents page) captured the feeling of the violent storm's impact (on the photographer, as well!). I've photographed in N Tanzania myself, and Suzi's work is simply breathtaking. Thank you for bringing some of her experience and her art to us.

Posted by Craig Markham on July 31,2010 | 12:04 AM

Re: "cave art" posting - that is exactly what I first thought it was when I first looked at it.

Posted by Gresh Ivey on May 20,2010 | 05:26 PM

@Nancy is it a good view over your intestines from there?

The changes of the climate is indeed troublesome for the wildlife, more and more waterholes running dry too soon.

Posted by N. O. Soma on May 18,2010 | 03:01 AM

What do you know about africa? Have you travel across the ocean before? i know people who say things like that are know less..

Posted by smith on May 15,2010 | 01:21 AM

The lands that supported the huge buffalo herds in the US now feed the world, and only small farms allow buffalo to graze.

Control the tsetse fly, encourage green technology, improve the roads, and African people can do the same.

But Africans are allowed to starve...must save animals for rich Europeans to visit, not help poor people get rich.

Posted by Nancy Reyes on May 13,2010 | 03:55 AM

Am I the only person who @ first mistook the photo of widebeests crossing the water for cave art? Not only a beautiful photograph, but very evocative of ancient artwork.

Posted by SALLY WALLIAN on April 27,2010 | 10:21 AM



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