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The Serengeti National Park represents the largest intact sys-
tem of migratory species remaining on the planet since the
Late Pleistocene mass extinction. Indeed, nowhere do we still
find such an abundance of ungulate diversity and wildlife-
plant interactions as in the Serengeti, with over at least 2 mil-
lion herbivores present, critical to other endangered predators
like lions, leopards, cheetahs and wild dogs. The continued
migration of wildlife, so crucial to the entire ecological net-
work and system there represent a global heritage and is there-
fore listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
In 2010 a major highway was proposed across the Serengeti.
However, following intense international pressure, the Tanza-
nian Government announced in 2011 that it will favour an alter-
native route to the South, outside the park. The original proposal
involved the construction of a 50-kilometre (31-mile) road, which
would cut right through the northern part of the park in Tan-
zania, forming part of the 170-kilometre long Arusha-Musoma
highway to run from the Tanzanian coast to Lake Victoria, and
on to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of
Congo, where access to minerals and timbers will be facilitated.
About 1.5 million wildebeest and zebras, as well as newly re-
established wild dog and rhinoceros populations, cross the
path of the proposed road on migrations to both the north and
the return to the south every year.
These 1.3 million wildebeest are key determinants of the entire
ecological network and ecosystem in the Serengeti, where over
500,000 calves are born every year in February. The wildebeest
consume nearly half of the grasses, and fertilize the plain, compa-
rable to 500 truckloads of dung and 125 road tankers of urine every
single day (Dobson and Borner, 2010). Not only do they fertilize
the ecosystem, with positive effects on numerous other species,
the trampling and impacts on seedlings and other plants also cre-
ate habitat and forage for numerous other species, while helping
to regulate the wild fires by keeping fuel low in certain areas.
Some projections suggest that if the road were built, numbers may
fall to less than 300,000 (Dobson and Borner, 2010), others that
the herd could decline by a third (Holdo
et al.
, 2011), which in turn
to loss of populations in other areas and a possible break-down of
parts of the Serengeti ecosystem. While a road would not cause a
complete failure of any migration, there is ample evidence today
that even roads, apparently passable, can cause avoidance, reduce
crossings or delay or hinder migrations (UNEP, 2001; Ito
et al.
2005; Xia
et al.
, 2007; Bolger
et al.
, 2008; Lian
et al.
, 2008; Har-
ris
et al.
, 2009; Nellemann and Vistnes, 2009; Buho
et al.
, 2011).
The Serengeti