[South Sudan] Topi of Boma National Park
This country has 11,544,905 population still didn't get stamp
Every fall the plains of South Sudan, normally pale yellow and brown, turn a vibrant viridescent shade. This explosion of greenery helps spur on one of the largest mammal migration in the world. Every October, at least a million antelope thunder across the plains towards the vast lowlands around the White Nile. An estimated 125,000 of the migration’s participants are the spectacularly weird topi. With an estimated 300,000 spread throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the topi migrating through South Sudan number a little less than half the entire population. These medium-sized antelopes are a deep, burnish brown with black splashes across their foreheads, thighs, and hips. They also sport light tan “socks” allowing their legs to blend into the tall grassy plains they call home.
Topi are an extroverted species that have been known to socialize with animals beyond their own species, like wildebeests, zebras, and even ostriches. They are notoriously picky eaters: the topi only graze on grass and can go without water for long periods, so long as the grass is fresh and well-hydrated. Perhaps weirdest of all, female topis can actually delay birth if they sense they’re in danger.
The Sudd wetland, through which the topi migrate every year, is currently on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in South Sudan. It’s a move that has brought more attention to the region and its animals as South Sudan’s bloody seven-year civil war came to a close in 2018. However, there are real concerns around the rise in poaching, the unregulated extraction of natural resources, and human encroachment in the Sudd. While the civil war ended in 2018, violence between armed communities has continued in South Sudan over land disputes and post-war grievances straining conservation efforts in the region.
Throughout all the violence though, the topi migration has continued . Paul Elkan, head of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s South Sudan program, said in an interview, “the country’s wildlife is one of those special features of South Sudan which still arouses some hope.”
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Added in The Tentative Lists of the UNESCO World Heritage
Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape (Contiguous site)
The Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape (‘the landscape’) covers an estimated area of 37,500 km2. The landscape consists of Boma and Badingilo National Parks on either sides of a large expanse of savannah habitats. To the west lies Badingilo (8,935km2) and to the east is Boma (19,747km2). These are connected by an unprotected corridor that allows the wildlife to range between the two protected areas. Various White Nile tributaries drain northwards through the landscape, including the Kinyeti, Lotilla and Kengen, all of which flow into the Pibor River that drains into the Sobat River. The north of Boma National Park contains the Juom swamps that has various permanent pools and forms an extensive flooded grassland during the wet season.
The landscape encompasses various grassland and woodland savannahs along a belt of natural wilderness between the White Nile (or ‘Bahr el Jebel’) and the Ethiopian border. The grasslands and plains are dominated by Hyparrhenia, Sporobolus, Pennisetum and Echinochloa grass species. Various woodlands consist of Combretum, Balanites and Acacia species. The soils are mostly black-cotton, which are rich in nutrients and have a high clay content. During the wet season, seasonal flooding of these grasslands creates vast flooded areas. The entire landscape is exposed to extensive burning during the dry season, these fire dynamics perform an essential role in maintaining the area’s grassland habitats.
The landscape falls across the “Sudd-Sahelian Flooded Grasslands and Savannahs” and “East Sudanian Savannahs” WWF Global 200 eco-regions.
Its defining characteristic is the annual white-eared kob migration, a natural spectacle of approximately 1 million animals moving in mega-herds, consisting of thousands of individuals, between Boma and Badingilo National Parks. This is the second largest animal migration in the world.
There are also a number of other important savannah species found within the landscape, including Rothschilds giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi) (Endangered), African elephant (Loxodonta africana) (Vulnerable), white-eared kob (Kobus kob thomasi)(Least Concern), Mongalla gazelle (Eudorcas albonotata)(Least Concern, Endemic), bohor reedbuck (Redunca redunca)(Least Concern), tiang (Damaliscus lunatus tiang)(Vulnerable), Beisa oryx (Oryx b. beisa) (Near Threatened), and wild dog (Lycaon pictus) (Endangered). Importantly, the landscape includes the southern part the tiang’s migratory range, which is visited during the wet season and is a key breeding habitat for the species.The Boma-Badingilo Migratory Landscape contains some of East Africa’s most extensive savannah habitats. The IUCN world heritage site gap assessment identified the Sudd-Sahelian Flooded Grasslands and Savannahs eco-region, of which the northeastern portion of the landscape is a part, as a key unrepresented ecological system globally. The landscape’s grassland ecosystems exhibit strong environmental gradients with pronounced short and long term variations in biomass production and distribution, related to seasonal flood dynamics. This characteristic drives movements of antelope and other species between areas of varying ecological resource availability on a seasonal basis. These seasonal wildlife movements, mostly of white-eared kob but also of sympatric Mongalla gazelle, constitute one of the world’s few large-scale migrations of terrestrial mammals of outstanding universal value. This is a unique phenomenon that consists of a species assemblage that is completely distinct from antelope migrations elsewhere. The flora and fauna in this region forms a unique ecosystem of its own kind, and of great important for conservation.
The white-eared kob migration across Boma and Badingilo savannah ecosystems is a wildlife spectacle and superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance, in which hundreds of thousands of animals migrate in mega-herds across a wide expanse of intact grassland savannah ecosystem. This antelope migration represents one the world’s few long distances and wide rang seasonal movements of terrestrial mammal species on earth similar to that of Serengeti ecosystem.
mapuo
Shiro from Slowly could it be replaced with a White-Eared Kob or considering as another idea?