KENYA:Thousands of wildebeest have drowned in a bizarre accident during their annual migration across Africa
Their bloated, rotting carcasses now litter the Mara river, filling Kenya's most famous game park with the sickly stench of death.
Conservationists in the Masai Mara reserve described the deaths as "heartbreaking". They believe the animals simply picked the wrong point to cross a river swollen by heavy rains and struggled to clamber up its steep banks.
More than 10,000 are estimated to have died as day after day they poured into the water oblivious to the grotesque pile-up ahead.
Brian Heath, head of the Mara Conservancy, which runs a third of the reserve, said: "I have lived in the Mara for the past six years and this is by far the worst I have ever seen.
"It's very distressing for people who have been working to prevent poaching to see such large numbers of animals wiped out in a matter of days." He said the animals had tried to cross the river en masse as heavy rainstorms moved closer.
"The first few were managing okay but then they moved downstream and started struggling to get out, clambering over each other," he said. "It was just a bad choice of crossing point."
The annual wildebeest migration is one of Africa's most spectacular natural sights.
Thousands of tourists visit Kenya and Tanzania to watch more than a million wildebeest - accompanied by 200,000 zebra - cross from the Serengeti into the Masai Mara and back in search of fresh grazing. Most sightseers head for the Mara river.
Here vast numbers of animals mass on the banks before plunging into the water as if at some invisible green light.
Each year hundreds die in the stampede. Some simply drown in the swirling waters while others are snatched by crocodiles.
But it is rare for more than 1,000 to die in a day.
Conservationists could only stand by and watch events unfold, according to Terilyn Lemaire, who works in the Masai Mara and writes a blog for the charity WildlifeDirect.
"There was some consideration put into blocking off the lethal crossing point when the number of fatalities began to rage out of control, with no end in sight," she wrote in her blog.
"But, as heartbreaking as it is to witness such mass suicide resulting from sheer animal stupidity, it's nature. And who are we as humans to interfere with that?"