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Unreported, an environmental tragedy is unfolding in a remote corner of Africa, on the borders of the newly-designated state of South Sudan, that could imperil the second-largest mammal migration on the African continent.

Most of us know about Africa’s largest migration, the millions of wildebeest and their attendant predators who race across the Serengeti plains of east Africa in search of water each year. It is the stuff of countless photographs and hundreds of TV natural history programs. But how many have heard of the second-largest migration? I certainly hadn’t until I stumbled on it last month in the Ethiopian region of Gambella.

As we drove into the bush, the track ahead was alive with large animals. From the far distance they looked like cattle, but it soon became clear they were antelope. As we drew closer, their numbers grew, and they began running. I could see a dense column stretching in all directions. They numbered many thousands, with warthogs in among them, darting through the tall wet grass between a series of ponds and heading toward the Baro River, a tributary of the Nile.