Migration Threats

 Just as many of earths natural places, the migration faces threats from encroaching human populations. The complex of reserves and conservation areas that make up most of the ecosystem - Serengeti National Park, Maasai Mara Reserve, Ngorongoro Conservation Area and associated wildlife corridors and buffer zones - is 10,000 square miles, roughly the same  size as state of Massachusetts. However. during droughts the protected area is not large enough to accommodate the herds as they move into the settlements. In all times the protected area is too large for the growing number of people who live within its boundaries. Farmers and ranchers are constantly putting up fences, which restrict the animals movement. Poacher illegally hunts as many as 160,000 migratory herbivores annually. Arrests for illegal hunting in the Western Corridor mirror the arrival of the migration. What is true for lions is true for bushmeat hunters; predators linked to the land must wait for the prey that is linked to the migration.