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DROUGHT KILLS DOZENS OF WILDLIFE IN KENYA AND TANZANIA, DISRUPTS ANNUAL MIGRATION February 27, 2006
Apunyu Bonny
(SomaliNet) Dozens of hippopotamuses and other wild animals in Kenya and neighboring Tanzania have been has killed by sever drought disrupting the annual migration of wildebeests and zebras between the two East African nations, conservation officials said. Andnetwork reported Monday.
Mean while Maasai warriors and others are driving tens of thousands of cattle inside Kenya's wildlife sanctuaries in search of pastures and water -- risking attacks by wild animals, Kenya Wildlife Service spokeswoman Connie Maina said Saturday.
At least 60 hippopotamuses in Kenya's wildlife sanctuaries have been killed by the drought has The animals -- the third-largest living land mammals, after elephants and white rhinos -- need large quantities of water or mud to cool bodies, which can weigh up to 3.5 tons.
"Whenever there is a drought, the first casualties are usually hippos who live in the water," Maina said.
Some 40 endangered Grevys zebra -- the largest, wildest and most untamable of the three zebra species remaining in Africa -- have died from anthrax near the Samburu Game Reserve, Maina said. Natural anthrax's bacillus spores can live for decades in dry soil and are ingested by animals rummaging for vegetation during droughts.
Some of Africa's most rare and treasured species live in natural habitats in Kenya and Tanzania, in at least 80 national parks and game reserves. Tanzania, East Africa's largest country, has set aside more than 25 percent of its land for the conservation of the rich wildlife.
In Kenya's Amboseli National Park, the drought has reduced large parts of the land to a dusty field. Hundreds of buffaloes, water bucks, elephants and other large animals that need plenty of water are suffering in the drought, wildlife officials in Kenya and Tanzania said.