In Search of Greener Pastures

Abstract

“Where the hell arc they?” Here we were in the middle of the Serengeti Plain, grasslands stretching to the horizon, and all around us . . . nothing. Just two weeks ago, according to our guide, Amos Urio, this very place had been awash in wildebeest and zebras, hundreds of thousands of them, but a lack of rains had prompted them to move on in search of greener pastures. Now the only creatures in sight were a couple of Thomson’s gazelles, nibbling the brown grass and nervously twitching their tails. I repeated my question. “Where are the herds?” Amos, more bemused than perplexed by the situation, replied, “They're gone.” Having come all the way from the United States to Tanzania expressly to see the Serengeti’s wildebeest migration, often called the greatest wildlife spectacle on earth, I was hardly in the mood to accept the Zen-like simplicity of his answer. “How can a million wildebeest just disappear?” I asked incredulously. “They've got to be somewhere.”