Kenyan drought kills hundreds of elephants, wildebeests, and zebras

• More than 200 elephants, 512 wildebeests, 381 common zebras and 51 buffalos have died in the past nine months.
• An estimated 18 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya are experiencing food shortages.
• This is the longest drought to affect the area in forty years.

In the midst of the country’s worst drought in decades, hundreds of elephants, wildebeests, and zebras have perished throughout Kenya.

“The Kenya Wildlife Service Rangers, Community Scouts, and Research Teams counted the deaths of 205 elephants, 512 wildebeests, 381 common zebras, 51 buffalos, 49 Grevy’s zebras, and 12 giraffes in the past nine months,” a report released Friday by the country’s Ministry of Tourism said.

“The drought has negatively impacted on the herbivore populations and particularly wildebeest and zebra.”

According to data from the World Food Programme, an estimated 18 million people in Somalia, Ethiopia, and Kenya are experiencing food shortages as a result of the prolonged drought that has ravaged the Horn of Africa for the past four successive rainy seasons.

According to the World Meteorological Organization of the UN, this is the longest drought to affect the area in forty years.

According to the tourism ministry, consecutive seasons of below-average rainfall in Kenya have caused riverbeds to dry up and devastated grasses in game reserves.

“The worst-affected ecosystems are home to some of Kenya’s most-visited national parks, reserves and conservancies, including the Amboseli, Tsavo and Laikipia-Samburu areas,” its report said.

Peninah Malonza, Kenya’s Minister of Tourism, Wildlife, and Heritage, claimed during the report’s unveiling that measures were being done to save animal lives, including drilling boreholes and bringing water to dried-up water pans and dams.

“The drought has caused mortality of wildlife, mostly herbivore species,” Malonza said.

“The mortalities have arisen because of depletion of food resources as well as water shortages,” she added. According to the ministry, Kenya had just 36,000 elephants left last year.

Najib Balala, a former cabinet secretary for wildlife and tourism in Kenya, claimed that climate change now kills 20 times as many elephants as poaching in a July interview with the media.

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