REGISTER-HERALD (Beckley, W Virginia) 30 March 06 Crocodiles might still be around a million years from now (John Blankenship)
The Discovery and Science channels offer escape to those of us who are tired of electronically induced laughter and sexual innuendo.
Spectacular wildlife shows often feature a cast of nearly 1.5 million wildebeest and a bunch of hungry predators. There’s no substitute for seeing ferocious crocodiles snapping at wildebeests trying to cross the Mara River during the seasonal migration in east Africa’s Serengeti region.
Wildebeests come to eat the grass, and the carnivores come to eat the wildebeests.
Hungry crocs snatch unsuspecting wildebeests from sandy riverbanks as the sun, burning high overhead, illuminates a desolate landscape on the floor of a sweltering African valley.
All around, sheets of choking dust, frozen by time, radiate heat. Mirages float on the skyline, and a hot, dry wind whistles over the rocks.
But the lethargy and monotony brought on by this immense heat is broken by a glorious gurgling of swirling eddies trickling through the deserts, bisecting the great savannah plains and meandering through the sinuous, drought-plagued passageways.
And blue wildebeests, single herds of which are larger than any other left on earth, trek towards the sedate and gentle waters.
Migration is a word that conjures up vivid pictures of hordes of animals cantering across plains and plunging into rivers.
But that is a superficial picture’ there is much more to this migration than first meets the eye.
Wildebeests first appeared on the scene more than one million years ago. Grazers, they have evolved to live at high densities on an unstable food supply. Their population, although it fluctuates from year to year, is 1.6 million animals — a staggering 60 percent of the total number of animals on what traditionally has been labeled the Dark Continent.
These animals range over a vast area of some 15,000 miles, and it is the movement of the wildebeest that actually defines the Serengeti ecosystem.
Occasionally, they will ford rivers, braving the onslaught of crocodiles.
But the trigger for mass movement may not, as might be supposed, be a shortage of food or water but of vitamins.
Unlike the grass in the north, the short-grass plains are rich in phosphorus, needed by the females for lactation and by the young, growing calves.
Ninety percent of calves are born in a flurry of activity that lasts as little as three weeks.
That’s good for replenishing the annual population.
But wildebeest numbers are reduced one animal at a time by the crocodiles, lying as motionless as a piece of driftwood, until one golden-flecked eye opens with a particularly intense gaze.
The lengthy reptiles only have to feed once a year to stay healthy and nourished.
And the wildebeests, eager to enter the water and swim to the other side, are no match for the toothy predators patiently waiting on their own turf — the river.
Once a wildebeest is taken from its fellows on the bank, the animal is dragged into deeper water and spun around a few times under the currents, a ploy possibly aimed at causing the flatland prey to become disoriented, thus reducing the chances for escape — although some lucky wildebeest do manage occasionally to escape the deadly jaws.
Generally, though, the outcome is the same: the wildebeests provide a protein-rich menu for the enduring flesh-eaters.
The largest Nile crocodile on record was shot in 1952 on the Semliki River in Uganda. It was 19 feet long and weighed 2,200 pounds.
The Nile crocodiles are, to say the least, magnificent living relics from the age of the dinosaurs. Their survival instincts are strong or they wouldn’t still be around.
And where a promising meal is concerned, the crocodiles are among the most faithful feeders on earth — amassing more than 1 million years of dining experience.
So it looks as if the wildebeest migrations and the crocodile feasting might still be going on a million years from now.
I wonder if our TV sets will last that long?
http://www.register-herald.com/cnhi/registerherald/features/local_story_089224443.html?keyword=topstory
