Wildebeest and wolves: The secret weapons against climate change

A recent scientific study has revealed the significant impact that a mere nine groups of animals can have on our climate. The results were quite astonishing, leading to the question: what if we did more to protect these creatures? One of these groups is the wildebeest, a large antelope species that roams across East Africa's expansive Serengeti grassland. Their annual migration is one of the largest animal movements on Earth, and their activities, such as churning up the dirt with their hooves and consuming vast quantities of plant life, have a profound effect on the environment. However, the wildebeest population wasn't always this large, and their history provides insight into the potential impact wildlife can have on the amount of carbon in our planet's atmosphere. While it's tempting to focus solely on technical solutions like renewable energy to combat climate change, we may have other allies in the natural world. According to scientists, increasing populations of animals such as wildebeest is a largely overlooked, yet valuable method of tackling climate change.

In the early 20th Century, the wildebeest population was decimated by a viral disease called rinderpest, spread by cattle, along with poaching and habitat loss. Their numbers dwindled to about 240,000. With fewer animals grazing, the volume of grass and other plants on the Serengeti increased. While this might seem beneficial for carbon sequestration, it actually led to more frequent and intense wildfires, releasing much of the carbon stored within the plants and soil of the savannah into the atmosphere. This turned the region from a net sink of carbon to a net source. However, the introduction of a cattle vaccination programme against rinderpest in the 1950s led to a steady recovery of wildebeest populations, peaking at 1. 5 million in the late 1970s. Today, there is an estimated 1. 2 million wildebeest in the Serengeti. They consume vast amounts of vegetation daily, reducing its availability as fuel for fires. Additionally, their dung enriches the soil, helping to lock the carbon into the land. Their hooves trample seedlings and other plant life, while large numbers of aggressive adult males damage trees and larger bushes through 'horning', maintaining the savannah landscape.

Consequently, the Serengeti has once again become a massive reservoir that absorbs more carbon than it releases, aiding in the reduction of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. For every additional 100,000 wildebeest in the Serengeti, the amount of carbon stored in the environment rises by 15%, according to Oswald Schmitz, a professor of population and community ecology at Yale University. Schmitz is part of a group of researchers advocating for animal rewilding as a crucial solution in tackling climate change. In a scientific paper published earlier this year, they reviewed two decades' worth of research to estimate the impact of key species in absorbing carbon. They concluded that protecting or restoring the populations of just nine specific groups of animals could facilitate the additional capture of 6. 41 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. This figure is significant, considering that climate scientists estimate that up to 10 billion tonnes of CO2 will need to be removed from our atmosphere globally every year to achieve the goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.