Environmental Degradation in the Ngoronogoro Crator
About 25,000 large animals are found in the Ngorongoro Crater, which contains the highest density of mammalian predators in Africa: lions, wild dog and cheetah. Also endangered black rhino, and elephant.
Ngorongoro is the calving grounds for over 1 million wildebeest of the Great Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem.
This is in contrast to most of the rest of the world where the average size of wildlife populations has plummeted more than 2/3 in less than 50 years, according to WWF.
But there is this a problem with this yellow flower (in the background).
Only a few herbivores can eat it.
The name of this plant with the yellow flower is Bidens Schimpery (Alaisikirai in Maa language). It is an invasive plant species in Ngorongoro Crater. No herbivore in the area will eat it, except goats. No livestock, including goats, have been allowed in the Crater since 2017.
Even the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority has not been able to control it. They tried tractors to try and remove it; they tried fire, but they burned at the wrong time of the year. Here the zebra are foraging for grasses under the Bidens Schimpery , which could overgrow the underlying grasses.
A young Maasai man, a university student, whom I call N.O. William, said:
A few days ago, I was in Ngorogoro Conservation Area, and found the Crater full of invasives "in spite of the fact that" livestock grazing is restricted.
I realized that in some circumstances, cattle can control the invasive species in one way or another regardless that other grazers don't feed on those invasives except Eliucine species during its early stage.
Eliucine species (Ormakutian in Maa language) is another invasive species in Ngorongoro Crater. It is a plant with hard ingnin (hard cellulose) that be grazed only by cattle, donkeys, and zebra in the plant's early stage. This would prevent the spread of this plant.
When asked if the NCA authorities know this, N.O. William said:
"I think they see, and know, but the problem they believe that invasives are caused by livestock in the Crater, which is not true.
In reality, the livestock did not cause the problematic plants that are found in the crater, because, if that were true, why are these plants not found in the areas where livestock graze?
At the time the livestock were allowed inside the crator, there was no such level of invasives in that area.
If livestock were the source of the invasive species, it could be found more in their grazing areas outside the Crater." ... (It's not!)
I asked him: was the NCA Authority Commissioner advised about this? Or is he so racist that he can't see the truth?
"Seems he know the reality, but they prepare a conspiracy to remove people outside of NCA"
N.O. William also said:
"The wild herbivores do not eat these flowers. That is why herbivores are fewer in the area with this plants.
But a lot of herbivores are near the sides of the craters where there are none of these flowers.
The plants with the yellow flowers are not grazed by wild herbivores and these plants restrict native plants from growing."
Lions will thrive in areas where there are herbivores.
But in area where there are the plants with the yellow flowers, there will be fewer herbivores, and therefore, less lions.
More plants with yellow flowers are found near the Elerai Forest in the Crater
Map of invasive weeds in the Crator - salmon color
Maps showing the increase -over the years - of the roads in the crator by tourists going off-road
One of the lies told by conservationists in Tanzania, is that the Maasai are not indigenous, or that there were other people were in Ngorognoro first. Some claim that, since the Maasai were expelled from the Serengeti and were given Ngorongoro instead, that there were originally no Maasai in Ngorongoro.
Clemence Parsiato was born in the Ngorongoro Crater in 1948. He grew up in the Crater. In 1970, the Maasai were banned from living or grazing cattle in the Crater.
See https://www.global-focus-50x50-indigenous.org/lies-and-more-lies-against-the-maasai