TANZANIA

Project title/name: Ecology of Migration in Wildesbeest

Country : Tanzania

Project location within the country: Serengeti National Park, north-western Tanzania

320,000 US$

Short project description: Study of the migratory patterns of Wildebeest in relation to the nutritional requirements of lactating cows and the ecological gradients in rainfall, grass production and major minerals across the ecosystem.

Description of the research programme: The annual long-distance movements of wildebeest in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem are probably the most widely cited example of a surviving Pleistocene migration anywhere in the world. Yet surprisingly little was known of the causation of these movements. This research programme investigated the ecology of migratory movements in wildebeest and advised Tanzania National Parks about the critical importance of phosphorus and other minerals on the southern short-grass plains both as a key causation of migratory movements and a key resource for the wildebeest population.

Donor: The Nuffield Foundation, The Royal Society

Department: Science, Medicine and Health Care

Client: MGM

36

Title of consulting services provided: Implementation of three-year study of migration in Serengeti wildebeest

Description of services provided: Provision of a research team leader to undertake the research project into wildebeest migration. His main duties were to erect fenced exclosures at different locations within the ecosystem and measure plant production, standing crop, leaf digestibility and mineral content at 15-day intervals. All samples were sorted by hand, oven-dried in the field, and sent to UK Government ADAS laboratories for analysis. In addition serum, milk and urine samples were obtained from free-ranging wildebeest at different locations to estimate mineral losses and levels of deficiency. Results were published by University of Chicago Press (In: Serengeti II).

Staff provided: Dr M.G. Murray (Ecologist).

July 1987

June 1990

180,000 US$