Save the Tigers!

And the Gnus!

I've recently subscribed to the Discover Blogs RSS feed. Today there a couple posts on conservation.

In reverse order of their posting, the second was about Tanzania's plan to build a road across the Serengeti. This is deemed a really bad idea. The highway would stop the largest migration of land mammals in the world. It's predicted that would reduce the wildebeest population from millions to a few hundred thousand. The wildebeests are essential for the maintenance of the grasslands. There is an alternate route for the road that would not affect the migration. Let's hope that is the decision that is made.



The first was for saving tiger habitat. The plan is stating that basically, as a last ditch effort, we have to concentrate on just saving the small amount of territory left to the big cats. There are only about 3,000 tigers left in the wild with maybe less than 1,000 breeding females. The population has fallen 40% in the past decade. This plan is rightly described as their last chance.