| Yellowstone Bison Slaughter
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Article 2/05/05 |
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| Yellowstone,
Serengeti parks share similarities
By Mike Stark, Billings Gazette
2/05/05 |
BOZEMAN
- One has bison, wolves, brucellosis and whirling
disease.
The other has the wildebeest, cheetahs, rabies and invasive
prickly pear.
Yellowstone and Serengeti national parks may be half a
world apart, but they share many of the same intense popularities
and problems.
Both are faced with preserving large migrating wildlife,
reducing the spread of disease, curbing invasive species
and coping with livestock operations and human development
outside their borders.
"Serengeti and the greater Yellowstone ecosystem
are far apart, but there is much we can learn from each
other," said Edward Kishe, director of resource conservation
for national parks in Tanzania.
Kiche and 14 other park and wildlife officials from Kenya
and Tanzania are visiting Yellowstone as part of a joint
effort started in 2003 to discuss solutions to common
problems.
Yellowstone officials have taken two trips to East Africa.
African officials - representing Serengeti National Park,
Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve and wildlife groups
- arrived in Yellowstone Monday for a 10-day tour of the
area.
After spending two days in the park, they spent Wednesday
at Montana State University, headquarters of the Big Sky
Institute, which helped coordinate the trip.
It made sense managers of the two ecosystems - both large,
complex and often controversial - get together to talk.
"This is the first project of its kind in the history
of wildlife management," said Charles Mlingwa, director
of the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute. "We
realized there may be common problems. We'd like to see
how other sides are approaching those problems."
***
Serengeti National Park, located on northern edge of Tanzania,
is part of the vast, savannah wildlands that have changed
little in millions of years. The park itself is about
5,700 square miles (Yellowstone is 3,472 square miles).
It's home to some of the largest prides of lions in East
Africa and hosts a migration of more than 1 million wildebeests
each year.
Across the border in Kenya is the Maasai Mara National
Reserve, a 124-square-mile game park that's one of the
nation's most popular tourist destinations.
Unlike parks in the southern part of Africa that were
based on European models, the East African parks aren't
fenced and are meant to operate as naturally as possible.
For years, the nomadic Maasai were the only people who
occupied the area.
But, as with Yellowstone, more and more people have been
moving to the area, especially outside the western edge
of Serengeti National Park. The population grew by about
54 percent in the late 1960s and early '70s and, more
recently, has grown by about 4 percent a year, according
to one estimate.
"With increasing human population and associated
development activities, wildlife is subjected to that
human pressure," Mlingwa said.
More people means more livestock, which can lead to conflicts
with wild animals, and a potential impediment for migrating
animals. There also has been antagonism between locals
and park officials over the presence of wild animals.
The situation is similar to concerns outside Yellowstone
that elk eat hay on ranches and bison pose a threat of
spreading brucellosis to livestock. There was also frustration
that nearby communities weren't benefiting from the booming
safari business.
The situation in Africa has improved in recent years.
Although there is little or no compensation when livestock
or people are killed because of animals from the park,
local communities now get a portion of fees collected
at the park gates.
Outside Serengeti National Park, locals get 19 percent
of the fees. That money goes toward schools, health care
and other infrastructure. In some places, 25 percent of
hunting fees are returned to the communities in those
districts.
"That has really improved the relationship,"
said Paul Martine Ole Monet of the Siana Wildlife Trust.
Those benefits also have fostered a change in attitudes
toward the importance of preserving wildlife and protecting
migration routes.
Now, some local communities are even talking about setting
up their own wildlife preserves outside the park, at which
they would be allowed to charge an entrance fee and return
some money to the government through taxes.
"Now these animals inside and outside the park are
much more protected than before," he said.
The result is that people and wildlife are slowly finding
a way to co-exist through conservation education and shared
benefits, the African officials said.
"We haven't won the battle yet," Kishe said,
"but we feel that we may win the battle." ***
The African travelers had to adjust to slightly cooler
temperatures when they arrived in Yellowstone.
They spent time in Lamar and Madison valleys and are scheduled
to visit Old Faithful by snowcoach.
Between treks into the park, they are meeting with Yellowstone
officials, academic researchers and locals who live beyond
Yellowstone's boundaries.
John Varley, chief of Yellowstone's Center for Resources,
said the reciprocal relationship across the two continents
gives everyone a chance to see problems from a different
angle.
Instead of wolves and grizzlies, the Africans deal with
cheetahs and lions. Instead of bison wandering through
pastures, wildebeests barge across the landscape. Invasive
species such as the New Zealand mud snail have their equivalent
in the Mexican poppy or prickly pear.
The details may be different, but the themes are the same.
"We tend to think we'll go over there and teach,
but it doesn't take very long getting around the globe
and finding we don't have all the answers," Varley
said. "Maybe we could actually learn from each other."
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