Blue wildebeest cross the treacherous Mara River on their eternal search for fresh grazing and water.
MICHAEL POLIZA
May I ask what you were expecting?” enquires Torquay hotelier Basil Fawlty, when unhappy guest Mrs Richards requests a room with a view. “Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the Serengeti?”
This memorable episode from BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers seems to confirm the popular perception of wildebeest: that they make more of an impact upon us as a view than as individual animals. And when wildlife documentaries do offer us a closer look, it is generally of wildebeest as prey. We may be familiar with the flailing legs and bleats of terror as lion or crocodile do their grisly thing, but the camera seldom lingers long on the poor victim.