Rangers from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) on Wednesday began rounding up thousands of zebras here to move them to Amboseli National Park in a bid to stem losses by herders.
Rangers in helicopters rounded up galloping zebras into a large V-shaped enclosure made of tarpaulin. The animals at the narrow end of the enclosure were allowed through into an adjoining pen and from there they were loaded onto trucks, with each truck carrying some two dozen zebras.
KWS aims to move some 7,000 animals in all, mainly zebras.
The initiative is intended to restock Amboseli and to thus prevent hyenas and lions from attacking livestock in homes around the park.
The attacks came after thousands of zebras and wildebeests died last year in the Amboseli National Park as a severe drought depleted pasture and dried up watering holes.
"The deaths created an imbalance in the number of carnivores and herbivores in the park resulting in a shortage of the lions' and hyenas' normal food," KWS spokesman Paul Udoto said.
"It is expected that the restocking will restore the balance of animals within the park and reduce the lion and hyena attacks on livestock," Udoto explained.
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