Over 200 elephants died so far due to severe drought.
Both humans and animals in the region are affected by lack of food, as the country is currently facing the worst drought in the last 40 years. But the situation took its worst toll on the local wildlife, as hundreds of animals already lost their lives because of the extreme weather crisis.
The high wildlife mortality in Kenya was also highlighted by the Tourism and Wildlife minister during a recent press conference on the subject.
“The drought has caused mortality of wildlife, mostly herbivore species. The mortalities have arisen because of the depletion of food resources and, as well as water shortages. […]
“The drought has resulted in the deaths of the following species of wildlife: Wildebeest, we’ve lost a total of 512 animals; common zebra – we’ve lost a total of 381; our elephants, we’ve lost a total of 205”, Peninah Malonza explained.
Moreover, officials issued a new report on the matter, named “Impacts of the current drought on wildlife in Kenya”. According to the document, over 70 elephants were victims of the drought in Amboseli and Laikipia-Samburu safaris alone.
In addition, endangered animal species, such as the gravy Zebras, were also considerably affected by famine. Under these circumstances, authorities have decided to temporarily feed some of the herbivorous residents of the parks in order to try to partially keep the animals alive.
As a plus, minister Malonza fears that the figures in the report may be inaccurate, as carnivores probably already ate some of the animal victims of the drought.
Climate change is considered to be more dangerous than poaching for the wildlife reserve in Africa. Kenya is currently home to only 36.000 elephants.
As far as humans are concerned, no recent rain fall across the Horn of Africa has left 18 million nearly starving in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, shows latest report by the World Food Programme.
Source: africanews.com, edition.cnn.com
