In any place in the world with roads, vehicles are one of largest contributors to wildlife mortalities.  Surely, all of you reading this have either seen road kill or have even accidentally killed an animal while driving or riding in a car.  From deer to kangaroos to frogs to birds to African Wild Dogs, where there is a road, few species are left unscathed.  In fact, in many places road kills are how wildlife biologists determine the presence or absence of elusive animals that are very hard to find, especially when there are only few.  The world famous Serengeti National Park may soon be no exception to this idea, as Tanzania has recently approved a $480 million highway that will transect the park to connect the towns of Arusha and Musoma.

Hippo killed by vehicle.

The 300 mile (483 km) highway idea has stirred public outcry from animal rights activists, conservationists, biologists, and even safari outfits and travel industry businesses from all over the world.  Tens of thousands of people travel to the Serengeti and the Masai Mara to watch the annual wildebeest and zebra migrations, bringing in millions of dollars to Tanzania’s ecotourism-based  economy each year.  Hundreds of thousands of these hoofed animals move across this region in attempt to reach the only permanent water source in the dry season.  However, the proposed highway will likely disrupt these migration paths and potentially destroy the Serengeti ecosystem.

As the human population expands with increasing development and infrastructure, wildlife have suffered and many species have been brought to the brink of extinction as a result.  Biologists around the world agree that the biggest factors threatening wildlife today are habitat loss and fragmentation.  Fragmentation occurs when large tracts of habitat are disturbed and transected with roads, creating a disrupted ecosystem with many obstacles and dangers.  Further complications arise in a place like the Serengeti where trucks passing through the area carrying livestock could potentially spread disease that could reduce wildlife populations to unrecoverable levels.  With poaching activities at a fifteen to twenty year high, the highway would provide more poachers with easier access to their black market victims.  The ivory trade would benefit and large amounts of bushmeat could easily be sold along the roadside.  Other illegal and unsustainable resource exploitation would also likely increase.

Bushmeat (a monkey in this case) sold along the road side.

Many predator populations across Africa have been declining in recent times for a variety of reasons.  The endangered African Wild Dog, or Painted Dog, is no exception and is now one of the rarest carnivores in the entire continent.  An important population of the painted dogs does traverse the area where the proposed highway will be constructed starting as early as 2012.  Painted Dog Conservation has shown that road kills have a heavy impact on pack structures and the population as a whole.  It is certain that many predators (including the wild dogs, lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, etc.) as well as many prey species, raptors, and reptiles will also fall victim to the traffic on this deadly highway.

African Painted Dog killed by vehicle. (Credit: Caprivi Carnivore Project)

As of now, traders and travelers who wish to get to Arusha from Musoma (or vice versa) must drive a roughly 260 mile (418 km) loop around the Serengeti National Park that takes them far out of the way, using more gas and creating more pollution.  Proponents of the highway claim the highway will boost the economy of this portion of Tanzania that is now cut off from the rest of the nation, bringing jobs to and serving as many as 431,000 people living in the area.    Opponents argue that the risk of losing this precious world heritage site and its fauna does not outweigh the benefits that will be gained from the construction of this controversial thoroughfare.  They add that Tanzania’s ecotourism-based industry will greatly suffer as a result.

Credit: Steve Axford 

Is there a solution to this heated debate?  Perhaps.  The Frankfurt Zoological Society, a larger supporter of the Serengeti for the last 50 years, opposes the construction of the proposed highway but agrees that the amount of traffic through the central part of the Serengeti is much too high as it is right now.  They have developed a presentation which suggests an alternative route that will serve the same purpose and will likely be even more beneficial than the one currently approved.  Their alternative would skirt outside the southern border of the park and would service more than five times as many people.

A facebook page called, “STOP THE SERENGETI HIGHWAY”, with over 8,000 members, has developed a petition to stop the construction of this highway and has collected over 5,000 signatures from people all over the world.  Click here to join them on facebook, or here to sign their petition.  You can also visit Save the Serengeti’s website.

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