Adventure

Mouths of the Mara

November 4, 2022

The grasslands of the Masai Mara in Kenya and Tanzania’s Serengeti sweep you off your ft with gorgeous surroundings and iconic wildlife. During the migration, tens of millions of wildebeest and a whole bunch of hundreds of zebras and different ungulates transfer by means of the panorama, feeding on the grasses and, in flip, offering meals for others. In addition to the herds following the rains, many different species depend on this panorama for sustenance. It’s unimaginable to think about the variety of mouths this panorama feeds. We wish to spotlight only a few of them.

Zebra

Zebras have fairly the smile! They are uniquely suited to feed on the taller grasses and like them, thanks partly to their tooth and biology. They lack the four-chambered stomachs that ruminants like giraffes and antelopes have, in order that they eat a number of small meals every day. Zebras will eat the tall, coarse grasses leaving the remainder for others, like wildebeests, who can solely eat shorter grasses. This relationship, often known as mutualism, works out for each animals and is likely one of the causes you’ll see them touring collectively.

African Savanna Elephant

Being the largest terrestrial animal on Earth means you’ve obtained to eat so much! African savanna elephants can eat about 220 kilos of meals and 26 gallons of water day by day. Elephant tooth are very important to their survival and after their tooth put on down in outdated age, they won’t survive lengthy. Their tusks are literally tooth, however they emerge from the cranium, making them tusks! Just as people are left or right-handed, elephants, are left-tusked or right-tusked.

Leopard

Leopards hunt all kinds of animals on the Mara and take full benefit of the unimaginable panorama. They have 32 tooth, 4 of that are very lengthy, pointed canine tooth. While people even have sharp canine tooth, we now have smoother molars. Leopards, nevertheless, have sharp tooth all the best way to the again of their mouths, referred to as carnassial molars, to shred the robust pores and skin and muscle tissue of their meals.

Waterbuck

Waterbuck are giant antelope that use these fine-looking chompers for grazing on medium and quick grasses wealthy in protein. Living close to the water, these animals eat the leftovers from different grazers. They’ll browse grasses and leaves which are handed over by others. They even have glands that produce a musky odor that additionally acts as a bug repellent (you don’t see ticks on waterbuck) and it makes waterbuck not very appetizing to predators. The waterbuck’s pungent odor retains them as one of many final on the menu for the Mara’s predators!

Nile Crocodile

Nile crocodiles are well-fed by life within the Mara, notably throughout migrations. They feed by grabbing and holding onto their prey, so their robust jaws and sharp tooth assist them seize a meal. Nile crocodiles have a chew pressure that’s measured to be round 5,000 kilos per sq. inch (PSI)– whereas a human’s chew is simply about 162 PSI.

Giraffe

Giraffes feed on what’s out of attain for a lot of the Masai Mara’s animals. But their lengthy necks aren’t their solely benefit of their effort to eat leaves off tall timber. They have a tongue that may be as much as 21 inches lengthy! Giraffes additionally lack entrance tooth on the highest of their jaw, permitting simpler entry for his or her tongue to succeed in out and seize leaves. They do have backside tooth, a hardened dental pad, and loads of molars in the back of the jaw. Surprisingly, they’ve the identical variety of tooth as people — even with out higher entrance tooth!

Brown Parrot

an benefit over species that may’t get to the fruit and it’s recognized to be an opportunistic hen, usually feeding on the fruits of sausage timber (pictured above), jackalberry timber, leadwood timber, and sycamore fig trees.

White-backed Vulture

White-backed vultures play a significant function on this ecosystem because the clean-up crew. They eat carrion and feed solely on just lately deceased animals. By shortly consuming the meat and bone fragments earlier than they rot, they assist stop the expansion of harmful micro organism and viruses. Often loss of life will occur to giant herbivores at night time, giving vultures and different scavengers an early morning feast! Their consuming habits assist hold the Mara a extra sanitary place.

Lion

Like many carnivores, lions depend on their robust tooth. Lions have three sorts of tooth, their incisors, their canines to seize and maintain onto prey, and their carnassial molars to shear meat. A lion’s sharp canine tooth could be as much as 10 centimeters lengthy! They are expert hunters and play an essential function on this ecosystem.

There are many extra mouths of the Mara, taking over all styles and sizes and feeding off the presents the panorama gives. Living alongside the animals for hundreds of years, this panorama has been taken care of by the Maasai individuals. They are one of many large the reason why it nonetheless exists. Some of the highway networks within the Mara and the Serengeti have been at one-point Maasai routes for grazing. They proceed to play a significant function in defending and sustaining the Mara as we all know it.

The other ways these mouths feed off this land and survive can present infinite fascination, however additionally they information our work at World Wildlife Fund. In collaboration with our companions, we work to guard landscapes that assist biodiversity to make sure wildlife have locations the place they will dwell out their wild lives with loads to eat.

By Danielle Brigida, Senior Director of Wildlife Communications & Strategy at World Wildlife Fund (WWF)