Serengeti Ecosystem
Why was the Serengeti National Park established?
To preserve wildlife particularly the Great Migration.
Why do Wildebeest migrate?
What is the 30x30 initiative?
An initiative to go from 12% of conserved land to 30% conserved land.
Why is the Serengeti a model for conservation?
It is a unique ecosystem with a large biodiversity that has been extensively studied helping us to understand other ecosystems.
If the number of wildebeest carcasses sampled is 126 compared to an average population of 600,000 wildebeest, what can this tell us about wildebeest migration?
The great migration is a mortality factor that affects wildebeest population in a positive way allowing more wildebeest to survive.
What is a major challenge to the goal of conserving 30% of lands and waters by 2030?
Competing interests such as agriculture, tourism, and resource extraction.
What are the two main reasons that the Serengeti National Parks boundaries were changed?
To provide land to the local African people to hunt, farm, and live on and to include and to preserve the great migration.
Why is the Great Migration in the Serengeti considered a unique ecological event?
It involves millions of animals traveling in a continuous cycle driven primarily by food availability.
Provide an example of a living versus non living interaction and a living versus living interaction.
Answers may vary.
How does seasonal rainfall affect where wildebeest travel in the Serengeti? Explain how other factors can also impact their movement.
Rainfall impacts the grass and soils nutritional value and growth forcing wildebeest to migrate for food. Predators, diseases, and natural disasters such as fires can also impact wildebeest movements.
How do scientists use fat and bone marrow content to assess the health and survival of wildebeest during migration?
Provides evidence on wildebeest nutritional status such as healthy, stressed, or starved.
Which of the following animals in our area participate in a long migrations like the Great Migration?
A. Birds C. Bobcats
B. Black Bear D. Coyotes
A. Birds
How did humans impact the Serengeti ecosystem prior to conservation efforts?
Poaching, farming, tourism, and climate change influenced wildlife populations and migration patterns.
What evidence shows that food availability drives migration?
Wildebeest fat and bone marrow content and seasonal migration based on food availability. Wildebeest follow areas with the most grass.
No other species like Zebras and Gazelles also take part in the Great Migration.