Endangered

In the past few years, Kenya has been much talked about as the birthplace of Barack Obama's father. Animal lovers and wildlife enthusiasts, though, have had the country on their radar screen for ages - the Masai Mara Game Reserve (or simply The Mara) in Kenya is part of the Serengeti ecosystem and is the stage for one of nature's grand spectacles, the Great Migration. Getting to The Mara is not easy though: the last 2.5 hours of the drive go through the worst road I’ve ever traveled on (and I've been on bad roads but the stretch from Narok to The Mara takes it to a whole new level) and the dust is overwhelming. On the plus side, if you’re blond you’ll be able to see how you look with black hair after you go through that road.

Each year, over one million wildebeest and 300,000 zebra and antelope go on an 1,800-mile (3,000 km) journey in search of food and water, making it the largest migration on earth. From Tanzania's southeastern Serengeti in January, the herds move clockwise until they reach the Mara River around July/August, the final hurdle to the green grass of Kenya's Masai Mara. Getting there is not easy though - many will succumb to crocodiles or drowning when crossing the river. I wasn't lucky enough to witness a crossing, but saw the outcome of failed ones: you actually smell it before you see it and the number of carcasses on the water is overwhelming (not to mention the stench).

The herds remain in the northern Serengeti and The Mara until October when they start their trek back south, completing the migration cycle. And though more rain in the Serengeti this year has sent less migrating herds into The Mara, it was still a sight to see, countless wildebeest everywhere we went, looking at times like a brown wave spreading over the plains.

The number of animals migrating through Kenya is impressive, but the reality is that wildlife population in the country has declined drastically, with lions the most affected species: from 30,000 in the 1960’s, they number only 1,800 now. And they are not alone: elephants have dropped from 160,000 in the 1970’s to the current 30,000; black rhinos have gone from 20,000 in 1970 to 577 and the Grevy's zebra population (not found in The Mara) is now 2,000 from 13,500 in the late 1970’s. The cause? Loss of habitat due to spreading farms and towns, and poaching for their pelts or horns.

The issue of declining wildlife is particularly dramatic in The Mara which has lost more than 2/3 of its wildlife in the past three decades. It is no coincidence that over this period, the reserve area was reduced from 703 sq mi (1,821 km²) to 580 sq mi (1,510 km²), and cattle numbers have increased by over 1100% as villages grow around the reserve. As a result, wildlife is now competing with humans for land, and get killed either because they're viewed as pests or for profit. It is thus more important than ever to not buy any product that contains wild animal parts.

It is painful to imagine The Mara in another 10 years if nothing is done to protect its wildlife. In many ways, it'd be like one of the wildebeest carcasses that I saw - a lifeless mess. And it will show once more the stupidity of attempting to "conquer" nature without realizing it is to our own loss. Nature puts things in perspective, broadens our horizons by directing our attention to something other than our daily routine, reminds us of how small we really are. And in our age where self-absorption seems to be the rule, that's not a bad thing.