The total of all non-migratory wildlife species in
the Kenyan section of the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem has declined by
58 percent in the last 20 years. At the individual species level,
declines of over 70 percent have been recorded in buffalo, giraffe,
eland and waterbuck, and 88 percent in warthog22. The resident
wildebeest population in the Kenyan part of the Mara-Serengeti
ecosystem has also declined drastically over the past 20 years, and
is currently fluctuating around 31,000 animals, which is about 25
percent of the population size at the end of the 1970s23. A number
of factors are believed to have contributed to these declines, such
as land use and vegetation changes, drought effects and poaching,
but the causes have not been conclusively identified, and the wider
ecological impacts on large carnivores and other aspects of the
MMNR’s ecology are not known. Therefore, potentially in
conjunction with the study described under Action 2.3 above, MMNR
management will support or undertake a study to help identify the
causes of these declines and any impacts on the large carnivore
populations in and around the MMNR, and to suggest concise and
practical steps that can be taken by MMNR management to help
address these issues.
