NAIROBI, Kenya — A searing drought has killed dozens of hippopotamuses and other wild animals in Kenya and neighboring Tanzania, and disrupted the annual migration of wildebeests and zebras between the two East African nations, conservation officials said.
Masai warriors and others are driving tens of thousands of cattle inside Kenya's wildlife sanctuaries in search of pastures and water — risking attacks by wild animals, Kenya Wildlife Service spokeswoman Connie Maina said Saturday.
The drought has so far killed at least 60 hippopotamuses in Kenya's wildlife sanctuaries. The animals — the third-largest living land mammals, after elephants and white rhinos — need large quantities of water or mud to cool bodies, which can weigh up to 3.5 tons.
"Whenever there is a drought, the first casualties are usually hippos who live in the water," Maina said.
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Some 40 endangered Grevys zebras — the largest, wildest and most untamable of the three zebra species remaining in Africa — have died from anthrax near the Samburu Game Reserve, Maina said. Natural anthrax's bacillus spores can live for decades in dry soil and are ingested by animals rummaging for vegetation during droughts.
