What’s Gnu at Mara Siana?

Sure, the Great Migration is awesome to behold. But Ripoi Conservancy in the Masai Mara is also blessed with resident (year-round) wildebeest, which love to gather around the watering hole at Mara Siana Camp.

One of East Africa’s iconic mammals, the western white-bearded wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus mearnsi) is considered a keystone species of the greater Serengeti-Masai Mara ecosystem.

Some things you may not know about wildebeests (a.k.a. gnus):

• A herd or group of wildebeest is called a “confusion” because the animals often look disoriented or perplexed when migrating.
• Although British naturalist William Burchell was the first European to describe the wildebeest in 1824, the animal was depicted as long ago as 3,000 B.C. in ancient Egypt.
• Although rarely hunted by humans nowadays, wildebeest continue to provide a major food source for lions, crocodiles, cheetahs, hyenas and other predators and scavengers in the Mara.

There’s an old saying that God created the wildebeest using the spare parts of other animals including the body of a cow, head of a buffalo, tail of a lion, legs of a goat and head of a locust.

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