On CNN,I heard and saw that a severe drought hit Kenya and maybe ( ? ) TZ, pictues of dead cattle littering the landscape.
That reminded me of an old question I had,wonder whether anyone knows the answer.
In the Selous, game frequently "disappears" in a certain concession.My understanding is that other concessions often suffer the same fortune.
SO my question has been: where do all those buff,wildebeest,zebra ,, go,when the country dries up?
Are there "better" concessions that accumulate game,or are they leaving to the surrounding mountain ranges I saw in the distance ?

Sheephunter,

The Selous ecosystem is larger than Switzerland! It contains the 2nd largest (If I'm not mistaken) drainage system in africa after the Congo basin. There are multiple ever-flowing rivers flowing through the area culminating in a huge riverine Delta in the Indian Ocean. The only significant movement of game found in this ecosystem that can be defined as a migration is that of elephant whose migratory cycle between Southern Tanzania and Northern Mozambique is documented.

All other species "move" and "shift" within this ecosystem. There are countless springs within the reserve which rarely dry up and support the vast game populations. Those concessions with abundant "permanent" water will invariably hold more game in the "drier" period but the game does not "migrate" to distant lands, etc.

happy hunting!

.

When I hunted there (Selous) in 2004 the lions moved the buffalo around. The week before we got there they were seeing large herds of 100-200. We came in on the next hunt (late September) and didn't see a buffalo until day eight. The buffalo were moving around the concession, due to the lion pressure. This wasn't a problem on a 21 day hunt, but it could be on a 7-10 day hunt. Something to think about.