Kenya Wildlife Service wishes to set the record straight on the numbers of wildebeests swept away by raging waters of the Mara River in this year’s migration expected to be over by the end of this month.

According to KWS scientists based in the Maasai Mara National Reserve, about 5000 wildebeests drowned as they tried to cross the crocodile-infested swirling waters.

A report prepared at the Kenya Wildlife Service Mara Research Station scientists titled: “Unusual Wildebeest Mortality in the Mara River”, this was 2000 wildebeests more than the yearly average of 3000 deaths every year.

The only recent exception in casualties was in 2005 when such mass deaths last occurred.

Tourists who saw the heap of about 2000 carcasses were horrified by the sight and inflated the figure to more than 10,000 animals.

Traditionally, there are about eight favourite vantage points wildebeests are known to cross the Mara River.

Incidentally, most of this year’s deaths occurred at two crossing points popular with tourists, especially photographers.

There was also change of wildebeest crossing points to new areas ending up in steeper river banks.

The probable cause of the drowning was heavy rainfalls experienced over the country which caused the river to be swollen which resulted in the increased number of deaths in the river.

Indeed, the scientists’ report attributes the floods to the unusually heavy rains in September in the upper catchment areas as well as the destruction of the Mau Forest upstream the Mara River.

According to Mr Patrick Omondi, the KWS Head of Species Conservation and Management, the drowning was a natural selection phenomenon in a migration of more than 1 million animals.

“It’s part of the population dynamics in the spectacular migration and there’s nothing we could do about it. There is no rocket science to explain what happened when the animals’ self-preservation instincts failed.”

Although 5,000 deaths is a heartbreaking loss, it is still a small fraction of the more than 1 million wildebeest in the Mara-Serengeti eco-system.

The wildebeest deaths are replenished by the over 400,000 births every year.

Peak season begins in July and ends later this month when the wildebeest migrate from the Mara Savannahs in Kenya back to Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.

Meanwhile, the Kenyan government stopped all developments in the Mara and is preparing the Mara Conservation Area management plan.

One of the issues to be considered is the wildebeest migration and the tourist viewing points.

The annual Great Wildebeest Migration was named as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in November 2006 by a panel of experts in America.