by Richard Coke
I’ve just got back from the Masai Mara, where the last of the migration has been heading off.
The leopards and hyaenas in the Mara are in great condition, because they’ve been feasting all summer. But now the lean months start.
One of the things I love about coming out here is that you begin to see us humans as just another species. We share with animals the goal of survival.
A pride of lions will hunt wildebeest in the Mara all summer, but once the migration moves south, that’s it. The pride holds down a territory and can’t follow their prey. So they have to think of an alternative. They might go after warthog, or buffalo — but hunting those is a very different skill, and the switchover isn’t easy. Animals are constantly forced to adapt in order to survive.
In a strange way, it mirrors the crisis that much of the developed world is caught up in. Economic pressure is forcing people to make big changes. It’s tough, but the reassuring news is that we’ve somehow managed pretty successfully for three million years.
