23/07/2025
It is that time of year again, with dramatic images of wildebeest crossing the Mara River making headlines - but for all the wrong reasons. This was graphically, and verbally, depicted in an Instagram post by photographer and guide Nick Kleer, who was witnessing a crossing in the Serengeti National Park. In recent years, not only has the Serengeti stretch of the Mara River become "the place" to be to witness this spectacle - rather than on safari in the Masai Mara in Kenya. But controlling the hordes of safari vehicles that so often plague a crossing in the Mara has become Tanzania's problem too.
The background to the incident that Nick witnessed in Serengeti was explored in a thoughtful post by Adam Bannister, themes that were explored in a major article in the New York Times in Jan 2023. That article was promoted by two male cheetahs (the last of the 5 male coalition known as Tano Bora - chasing and killing a wildebeest calf, and in the process immediately surrounded by hordes of safari vehicles. Ugly! The authors examined the rise of an "aggressive" form or tourism that prioritises: "being there - getting close - getting the shot, regardless of the impact on the animals.
Sadly, for many years this has been the norm in the Masai Mara National Reserve - with the Serengeti now the focus as the best place to witness wildebeest crossing the Mara River in the dry season. Aggressive tourism is often expressed via the "selfie epidemic". It is a global phenomenon. Today everyone is a photographer, with photos the primary way for people to communicate, rather than through words.
Social Media, with its ability to send images at lightning speed around the world can create a feeding frenzy, particularly when people post spectacular imagery. It is akin to paparazzi. But the natural environment and its wild inhabitants - the very things that we so want to see when we travel (or even close to home), are paying a heavy price, topics covered in detail in a fascinating scientific article: Liked to death: the impacts of social media and photography on biodiversity - authored by Robert A. Davisa,*, Claire Greenwellb, Belinda J. Davisc, Philip W. Batemand - follow the link here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969724052562 #:~:text=Highlights,damage%20and%20trampling%20to%20plants.
But as some people have said - or alluded to in the Comments to Adam's article - the Rules and Regulations are already in place in Parks and Reserves. What is lacking is proper oversight, and real consequences for breaking the rules - most of which are simply common sense. Nothing will change until the Tourism Industry and local and national Government step up, prioritising the wellbeing of the environment - on which the industry depends - over profit.
There is hope. This kind of situation could be stopped in its tracks - overnight - if the administration adopted protocols and enforcement so clearly visible on the west side of the Mara River in the Mara Triangle - that part of the Masai Mara National Reserve managed to a very high standard by the Mara Conservancy Mara Mara Triangle and its CEO Brian Heath. The Mara Conservancy is a professional wildlife management company that plows a large part of the revenue (earned from tourism to the Triangle) back into managing the Triangle and in benefiting the local community living in the surrounding area. A similar management strategy, unencumbered by politics, should be applied to both sides of the life-giving Mara River, to benefit the whole of the Reserve. If that was to happen, then the Reserve might, in time, recover and be granted the World Heritage status that it so richly deserves.
When I first visited the Mara-Serengeti in 1974, while travelling overland from London to South Africa, we took a game drive in the Seronera region in the centre of the Serengeti, an area famous for its leopards, but where it was forbidden to go off-road. Our dreams and hopes were rewarded when we came across a beautiful male leopard resting at the base of a sausage tree. It was hard to see the magnificent big cat clearly among the vegetation, and in our ignorance, we asked our Ranger if we couldn't move the truck a little closer to have a better view (not least to get the photo!). But he quickly admonished us, saying: "If I was to do that I could lose my job, your could be kicked out of the Park, and your driver banned! The Senior Warden back then was David Babu, whose reputation for discipline was sufficient to put the fear of God into his staff - and members of the tourism industry. That is what it takes, along with a little common sense on the part of guides and visitors. We have to try to rekindle the sense of awe and wonder when on safari: to soak up the experience of being there, and savouring the moment. If that means putting the camera down and taking a deep breath then so be it.
