Wildebeest
Blue Wildebeest, Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Bovidae
Subfamily:	Alcelaphinae
Genus:	Connochaetes Lichtenstein, 1812
Species
Connochaetes gnou – black wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus – blue wildebeest

The wildebeest (plural wildebeest or wildebeests), also called the gnu ( /ˈnuː/ NOO or /ˈnjuː/ NEW)^[1] is an antelope of the genus Connochaetes. It is a hooved (ungulate) mammal. Wildebeest is Dutch for "wild beast" or "wild cattle" in Afrikaans (beest = cattle), while Connochaetes derives from the Greek words konnos ("beard") and khaite ("flowing hair").^[2] The name "gnu" originates from the Khoikhoi name for these animals, "gnou".

Gnus belong to the family Bovidae, which includes antelopes, cattle, goats, and other even-toed horned ungulates. Connochaetes includes two species, both native to Africa: the black wildebeest, or white-tailed gnu (C. gnou), and the blue wildebeest, or brindled gnu (C. taurinus). Fossil records suggest that these two species diverged about one million years ago resulting in a northern and a southern species. The blue wildebeest changed very little from the ancestor species, while the black wildebeest took on more morphological changes to adapt to a habitat of open grassland in the south. Today there are five subspecies of the blue wildebeest while the black wildebeest has no living subspecies.^[3] In East Africa, the wildebeest is the most abundant big game species, both in population and biomass.^[4]

Physiology[link]

Video of wildebeest feeding its foal, South Africa

A full grown wildebeest can be 4 ft 2 in (1.27 m) to 4 ft 10 in (1.47 m) at the shoulder and weigh 265–600 lb (120–270 kg). They inhabit the plains and open woodlands of Africa, especially the Serengeti National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Tanzania, Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya and Liuwa Plain National Park in Zambia. Wildebeest can live more than 40 years, though their average lifespan is around 20 years.^[5] The wildebeest have a broad muzzle shaped like a lawnmower which helps it with eating short grass.^[4]

Differences between blue and black wildebeest[link]

Blue Widebeest at Mikumi National Park, Tanzania

Black Widebeest at Kliprivier Nature Reserve, Johannesburg

The most striking morphological differences between black and blue wildebeest are the orientation and curvature of their horns and the color of their coats. The blue wildebeest is the bigger of the two species, standing taller and weighing more than the black wildebeest.^[3] In males, the blue wildebeest stand 150 cm tall at the shoulder and weigh around 250 kg^[6] while the black wildebeest stands 111 to 120 cm tall^[7] and weighs about 180 kg.^[8] In females, the blue wildebeest have a shoulder height of 135 cm and weigh 180 kg^[6] while the black wildebeest females stand 108 cm at the shoulder and weigh 155 kg.^[8] The horns of blue wildebeest protrude to the side then curve downwards before curving up back towards the skull while the horns of the black wildebeest curve forward then downward before curving at the upwards at the tips. Blue wildebeest tend to be a dark grey color with stripes, but may have a shiny blue color. The black wildebeest has brown colored fur with a mane that ranges in color from cream to black, and a tail that is cream colored at the end. The blue wildebeest lives in a wide variety of habitats that includes woodland and grassland while the black wildebeest tends to reside exclusively in open grassland areas.^[3] The blue wildebeest migrates over long distances in the winter, whereas the black wildebeest does not.^[9] The milk of the female black wildebeest contains higher protein, lower fat, and lower lactose content than the milk of female blue wildebeests^[10]

Ecology and life history[link]

In a typical year, wildebeest calves are born within a short period of time (roughly 90% are born in a three week period), presumably as an adaptation to swamp potential predators, like hyenas and lions^[11]. Calves born outside of the peak calving period often have a lower survival probability. Immediately after they are born, wildebeest calves start following their mothers. However, these young calves suffer from high mortality and only those with the best genetic endowments and who have experienced mothers survive through the first few years of life.^[4]

Migration[link]

Wildebeest herding and following a few leading zebra in the Masai Mara, Kenya

Wildebeest are famous for their annual long-distance migration, seemingly timed to coincide with the annual pattern of rainfall and grass growth. The timing of their migration in both the rainy and dry seasons can vary considerably (by months) from year to year. At the end of the rainy season (May or June in East Africa), wildebeest migrate to dry season areas in response to a lack of surface (drinking) water. When the rainy season begins again (months later), animals quickly move back to their wet season ranges. Factors that are suspected to affect migration include food abundance, surface water availability, predators and phosphorus content in grasses. Phosphorus is a crucial element for all life forms, particularly for lactating female bovids. As a result, during the rainy season wildebeest select grazing areas that contain particularly high phosphorus levels.^[4] One study found that in addition to phosphorus, wildebeest select ranges containing grass with relatively high nitrogen content^[12]. Wildebeest migration at the large-scale is quite likely a consequence of decisions being made by individuals at multiple spatial scales, involving a balance of food abundance, food quality, local density of other wildebeest, social interactions, surface water, perceived predation risk, and culturally (or possibly genetically) learned routes and ranges.

Wildebeest migration during a game drive in November 2011

Numerous documentaries feature wildebeest crossing rivers, many being eaten by crocodiles or drowning in the attempt. While having the appearance of a frenzy, recent research has shown that a herd of wildebeest possesses what is known as a "swarm intelligence", whereby the animals systematically explore and overcome the obstacle as one.^[13] Major predators that feed on wildebeest include the lion, hyena, cheetah, leopard, and crocodile, which seem to favor the wildebeest.^[5] Wildebeest, however are very strong and can inflict considerable injury to even a lion. Wildebeest have an apparent maximum running speed of around 64 km/h (40 mph).^[14] The primary defensive tactic is herding, where the young animals are protected by the older larger ones while the herd runs as a group. Typically the predators attempt to cut out a young or ill animal and attack without having to worry about the herd. Wildebeest have developed additional sophisticated cooperative behaviors, such as animals taking turns sleeping while others stand guard against a night attack by invading predators. Scientists are unsure how much is learned behaviorally and how much is hard wired into the DNA of the animal.^{[citation needed]} Wildebeest migrations are closely followed by vultures, as wildebeest carcasses are an important source of food for these scavengers. The vultures consume about 70% of the wildebeest carcasses available. Decreases in the number of migrating wildebeest have also had a negative effect on the vultures.^[15]. In the Serengeti Ecosystem, Tanzania, wildebeest may help also facilitate the migration of other smaller-bodied grazers, such as Thomson's Gazelles (Eudorcas thomsonii) who eat the new growth shoots on grasses that were stimulated by wildebeest foraging.

Interactions with non-predators[link]

Zebras and wildebeest group together in open savannah environments when there is a high chance of predation. This grouping strategy reduces predation risk because larger groups decrease each individual’s chance of being hunted, and also because predators are more easily seen in open areas.^[16]

Wildebeest can also listen in on the alarm calls of other species, and by doing so can reduce their risk of predation. One study showed that along with other ungulates, wildebeests responded more strongly to the baboon alarm calls compared to the baboon contest calls even though both types of calls had similar patterns, amplitudes, and durations. The alarm calls were a response of the baboons to lions, and the contest calls were recorded when there was a dispute between two males.^[17]

Breeding and reproduction[link]

Due to their migratory ways, the wildebeest do not form permanent pair bonds or defend a set territory. The wildebeest mating season is called rut, and during this time the males establish temporary territories and try to attract females. These small territories are about 3000 square meters, with up to 300 territories in a square kilometer. The males defend these small territories from other males while trying to attract females that are ready to mate. The males entice females into their territories with grunts and distinctive antics. Wildebeest usually breed at the end of the rainy season when the animals are most fit.^[4] The mating season usually occurs between May to July and the birthing period usually takes place between January to March, at the start of the wet season. The gestation period is about 8 to 9 months, and the average estrous cycle is about 23 days. Wildebeest females breed seasonally and ovulate spontaneously.^[18] Groups of wildebeest females and young live in the small areas established by the male. When groups of wildebeest join together, there is a larger female to male ratio as the females flock to the areas held by fewer males.^[16] It has also been suggested that this female dominated sex ratio may be due to illegal hunting and human disturbance. Higher male mortality has been attributed to illegal hunting.^[19]

Hybrids[link]

Due to their confinement in small areas in South Africa, the two species of wildebeest, the black wildebeest and the blue wildebeest have interbred, resulting in fertile hybrid young. These two species are brought into close contact with each other on game farms and reserves in South Africa. The resulting hybrid young may include characteristics of both species and even some intermediate traits. The hybrids also tended to have strange dental, horn, and skull shapes.^[3]

Conservation and management[link]

Wildebeest still number in the thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, in numerous areas in Eastern and Southern Africa which is a testament to the local efforts and foresight to conserve and manage these animals. However, many wildebeest populations are experiencing rapid declines. Over-land migration as a biological process requires large connected landscapes, which is increasingly difficult to maintain, particularly over the long-term, when there are competing human demands on the landscape as well. The most acute threat comes from migration barriers, such as fences and roads. In one of the more striking examples of the consequences of fence-building on terrestrial migrations, Botswanan authorities placed thousands of kilometers of fences across the Kalahari that prevented wildebeests from reaching watering holes and grazing grounds, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of individuals, and dropping the wildebeest population to less than ten percent of its previous size^[20]. Wildebeest migrations in the Serengeti and Tarangire Ecosystems, Tanzania, are also threatened by the construction of a roadway across the northern portion of these ecosystems. The impact of this road on migratory wildlife will undoubtedly be negative and reduce the aesthetic value of the ecosystems, but the magnitude of the impact (in numerical terms) on the population will depend on the extent to which the road acts as a barrier to movement, causes collision mortalities and opens the area to illegal hunting. In addition to roads and fences, illegal hunting is a major conservation concern in many areas. In the Western Serengeti, scientists estimate that tens of thousands of animals are poached each year, largely using wire snares. Other ecosystems are experiencing similar pressures, such as the Tarangire Ecosystem in Tanzania which historically supported large numbers of migratory wildebeest (as well as other species), but has recently declined in number, coincident with illegal hunting and land-use changes across the rainy season ranges. An important question in populations threatened by barriers and other pressures is whether and how they adjust to a less migratory lifestyle. Although the majority of wildebeest populations migrate, some populations do not migrate and appear to never have done so in recorded history. Such populations can be found in the Ngorongoro Crater, the Masai Mara, Lake Manyara National Park, Selous Game Reserve, and Hwange and Esotha National Parks.^[4].

Legal harvesting[link]

Wildebeest are killed for food, especially for biltong in Southern Africa, which is dried game meat. Biltong is a delicacy and an important food item in Africa.^[4] It has been found that the meat of females is more tender than that of males, and that meat was the most tender during the autumn season.^[9] Wildebeest are a regular target for illegal meat hunters because they are relatively easy^[vague] for hunters to kill. When preparing the wildebeest, the carcass is usually^{[weasel words]} cut into 11 pieces. The estimated price for wildebeest meat is about US$ 0.47 per kilogram.^[21]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Connochaetes

• Information and Research on wildebeest movements in Masai Mara

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Richard Matthew Stallman
Richard Stallman at the University of Pittsburgh 2010
Born	(1953-03-16) March 16, 1953 (age 59) New York City, New York, United States
Nationality	American
Other names	rms, St. iGNUcius (avatar)
Alma mater	Harvard University Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Occupation	President of the Free Software Foundation
Known for	Free software movement, GNU, Emacs
Website
www.stallman.org

Richard Matthew Stallman (born 16 March 1953), often shortened to rms,^[1] is an American software freedom activist and computer programmer. In September 1983, he launched the GNU Project^[2] to create a free Unix-like operating system, and he has been the project's lead architect and organizer. With the launch of the GNU Project, he initiated the free software movement; in October 1985^[3] he founded the Free Software Foundation.

Stallman pioneered the concept of copyleft, and he is the main author of several copyleft licenses including the GNU General Public License, the most widely used free software license.^[4] Since the mid-1990s, Stallman has spent most of his time advocating for free software, as well as campaigning against software patents, digital rights management, and what he sees as excessive extension of copyright laws. Stallman has also developed a number of pieces of widely used software, including the original Emacs,^[5] the GNU Compiler Collection,^[6] the GNU Debugger,^[7] and various tools in the GNU coreutils.^[8] He co-founded the League for Programming Freedom in 1989.

Early years[link]

Stallman was born to Daniel Stallman and Alice Lippman,^[9] in 1953 in New York City. His first experience with computers was at the IBM New York Scientific Center when he was in high school. He was hired for the summer to write a numerical analysis program in Fortran. He completed the task after a couple of weeks and spent the rest of the summer writing a text editor in APL.^[10] Stallman spent the summer after his high-school graduation writing another program, a preprocessor for the PL/I programming language on the IBM System/360.^{[citation needed]}

During this time, Stallman was also a volunteer laboratory assistant in the biology department at Rockefeller University. Although he was already moving toward a career in mathematics or physics, his teaching professor at Rockefeller thought he would have a future as a biologist.^[11]

As a first-year student at Harvard University, Stallman was known for his strong performance in Math 55.^{[citation needed]} In 1971 he became a programmer at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and became a regular in the hacker community, where he was usually known by his initials, rms (which was the name of his computer accounts). In the first edition of the Hacker's Dictionary, he wrote "'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'."^[1] Stallman graduated from Harvard magna cum laude earning a BA in Physics in 1974.^[12]

Stallman enrolled as a graduate student at MIT, but then ended his pursuit of a doctorate in physics to focus on his programming at the MIT AI Laboratory.

While a graduate student at MIT, Stallman published a paper with Gerald Jay Sussman on an AI truth maintenance system, called dependency-directed backtracking.^[13] This paper was an early work on the problem of intelligent backtracking in constraint satisfaction problems. As of 2003, the technique Stallman and Sussman introduced is still the most general and powerful form of intelligent backtracking.^[14] The technique of constraint recording, wherein partial results of a search are recorded for later reuse, was also introduced in this paper.^[14]

As a hacker in MIT's AI laboratory, Stallman worked on software projects like TECO, Emacs, and the Lisp machine Operating System. He would become an ardent critic of restricted computer access in the lab, which at that time was funded primarily by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. When MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) installed a password control system in 1977, Stallman found a way to decrypt the passwords and sent users messages containing their decoded password, with a suggestion to change it to the empty string (that is, no password) instead, to re-enable anonymous access to the systems. Around 20% of the users followed his advice at the time, although passwords ultimately prevailed. Stallman boasted of the success of his campaign for many years afterward.^[15]

Decline of MIT's hacker culture[link]

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the hacker culture that Stallman thrived on began to fragment. To prevent software from being used on their competitors' computers, most manufacturers stopped distributing source code and began using copyright and restrictive software licenses to limit or prohibit copying and redistribution. Such proprietary software had existed before, and it became apparent that it would become the norm. This shift in the legal characteristics of software can be regarded as a consequence triggered by the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, as stated by Stallman's MIT fellow Brewster Kahle.^[16]

When Brian Reid in 1979 placed time bombs in the Scribe markup language and word processing system to restrict unlicensed access to the software, Stallman proclaimed it "a crime against humanity."^[17] He clarified, years later, that it is blocking the user's freedom that he believes is a crime, not the issue of charging for the software.^[18]

In 1980, Stallman and some other hackers at the AI Lab were refused access to the source code for the software of a newly-installed laser printer, the Xerox 9700. Stallman had modified the software for the Lab's previous laser printer (the XGP, Xerographic Printer), so it electronically messaged a user when the person's job was printed, and would message all logged-in users waiting for print jobs if the printer was jammed. Not being able to add these features to the new printer was a major inconvenience, as the printer was on a different floor from most of the users. This experience convinced Stallman of people's need to be free to modify the software they use.^[19]

Richard Greenblatt, a fellow AI Lab hacker, founded Lisp Machines, Inc. (LMI) to market Lisp machines, which he and Tom Knight designed at the lab. Greenblatt rejected outside investment, believing that the proceeds from the construction and sale of a few machines could be profitably reinvested in the growth of the company. In contrast, the other hackers felt that the venture capital-funded approach was better. As no agreement could be reached, hackers from the latter camp founded Symbolics, with the aid of Russ Noftsker, an AI Lab administrator. Symbolics recruited most of the remaining hackers including notable hacker Bill Gosper, who then left the AI Lab. Symbolics forced Greenblatt to also resign by citing MIT policies. While both companies delivered proprietary software, Stallman believed that LMI, unlike Symbolics, had tried to avoid hurting the lab's community. For two years, from 1982 to the end of 1983, Stallman worked by himself to clone the output of the Symbolics programmers, with the aim of preventing them from gaining a monopoly on the lab's computers.^[20]

Stallman argues that software users should have the freedom to share with their neighbor and to be able to study and make changes to the software that they use. He maintains that attempts by proprietary software vendors to prohibit these acts are antisocial and unethical.^[21] The phrase "software wants to be free" is often incorrectly attributed to him, and Stallman argues that this is a misstatement of his philosophy.^[22] He argues that freedom is vital for the sake of users and society as a moral value, and not merely for pragmatic reasons such as possibly developing technically superior software.

In February 1984, Stallman quit his job at MIT to work full-time on the GNU project, which he had announced in September 1983.

GNU project[link]

Richard Stallman in 2003 at the opening ceremony of NIXAL (a GLUG) at Netaji Subhash Engineering College, Calcutta, India

Stallman announced the plan for the GNU operating system in September 1983 on several ARPANET mailing lists and USENET.^[23]

In 1985, Stallman published the GNU Manifesto, which outlined his motivation for creating a free operating system called GNU, which would be compatible with Unix. The name GNU is a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix." Soon after, he started a non-profit corporation called the Free Software Foundation to employ free software programmers and provide a legal infrastructure for the free software movement. Stallman is the nonsalaried president of the FSF, which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in Massachusetts.^[24] Stallman popularized the concept of copyleft, a legal mechanism to protect the modification and redistribution rights for free software. It was first implemented in the GNU Emacs General Public License, and in 1989 the first program-independent GNU General Public License (GPL) was released. By then, much of the GNU system had been completed. Stallman was responsible for contributing many necessary tools, including a text editor (Emacs), compiler (GCC), debugger (gdb), and a build automator (gmake). The notable exception was a kernel. In 1990, members of the GNU project began a kernel called GNU Hurd, which has yet to achieve the maturity level required for widespread usage.

In 1991, Linus Torvalds, a Finnish student, used the GNU development tools to produce the Linux kernel. The existing programs from the GNU project were readily ported to run on the resultant platform; most sources use the name Linux to refer to the general-purpose operating system thus formed. This has been a longstanding naming controversy in the free software community. Stallman argues that not using GNU in the name of the operating system unfairly disparages the value of the GNU project and harms the sustainability of the free software movement by breaking the link between the software and the free software philosophy of the GNU project.

Cover picture for O'Reilly Media's book Free as in Freedom

Stallman's influences on hacker culture include the name POSIX^[25] and the Emacs editor. On UNIX systems, GNU Emacs's popularity rivaled that of another editor vi, spawning an editor war. Stallman's take on this was to canonize himself as St. IGNUcius of the Church of Emacs^[26][27] and acknowledge that "vi vi vi is the editor of the beast," while "using a free version of vi is not a sin; it is a penance".^[28]

Around 1992, developers at Lucid Inc. doing their own work on Emacs clashed with Stallman and ultimately forked the software into what would become XEmacs.^[29] Technology journalist Andrew Leonard has characterized what he sees as Stallman's uncompromising stubbornness as common among elite computer programmers:

There's something comforting about Stallman's intransigence. Win or lose, Stallman will never give up. He'll be the stubbornest mule on the farm until the day he dies. Call it fixity of purpose, or just plain cussedness, his single-minded commitment and brutal honesty are refreshing in a world of spin-meisters and multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns.

—Andrew Leonard, Salon.com^[30]

Activism[link]

Richard Stallman giving a speech on "Free Software and your freedom" at the biennale du design of Saint Etienne (2008)

Stallman has written many essays on software freedom and since the early 1990s has been an outspoken political campaigner for the free software movement. The speeches he has regularly given are titled The GNU project and the Free Software movement,^[31] The Dangers of Software Patents,^[32] and Copyright and Community in the age of computer networks.^[33] In 2006 and 2007, during the eighteen month public consultation for the drafting of version 3 of the GNU General Public License, he added a fourth topic explaining the proposed changes.^[34]

Linus Torvalds has criticized Stallman for what he considers "black-and-white thinking" and bringing more harm than good to the free software community.^[35]

Stallman's staunch advocacy for free software inspired the Virtual Richard M. Stallman (vrms), software that analyzes the packages currently installed on a Debian GNU/Linux system, and report those that are from the non-free tree.^[36] Stallman would disagree with parts of Debian's definition of free software.^[37]

In 1999, Stallman called for development of a free on-line encyclopedia through the means of inviting the public to contribute articles.^[38] The resulting GNUPedia was eventually retired in favour of the emerging Wikipedia, which had similar aims and was enjoying greater success.^[39]

In Venezuela, Stallman has delivered public speeches and promoted the adoption of free software in the state's oil company (PDVSA), in municipal government, and in the nation's military. In meetings with Chávez and in public speeches, Stallman criticised some policies on television broadcasting, free speech rights, and privacy.^[40][41] Stallman was on the Advisory Council of Latin American television station teleSUR from its launch^[42] but resigned in February 2011, criticizing pro-Gaddafi propaganda during the 2011 North Africa uprisings.^[43]

In August 2006 at his meetings with the government of the Indian State of Kerala, he persuaded officials to discard proprietary software, such as Microsoft's, at state-run schools. This has resulted in a landmark decision to switch all school computers in 12,500 high schools from Windows to a free software operating system.^[44]

After personal meetings, Stallman has obtained positive statements about the free software movement from the then-President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam,^[45] French 2007 presidential candidate Ségolène Royal,^[46] and the president of Ecuador Rafael Correa.^[47]

Richard Stallman giving a speech at WSIS-2005

Stallman has participated in protests about software patents,^[48] DRM,^[49][50] and proprietary software.

Protesting against proprietary software in April 2006, Stallman held a "Don't buy from ATI, enemy of your freedom" placard at a speech by an ATI representative in the building where Stallman works, resulting in the police being called.^[51] ATI has since merged with AMD Corporation and has taken steps to make their hardware documentation available for use by the free software community.^[52]

Stallman has also helped and supported the International Music Score Library Project in getting back online, after it had been taken down on October 19, 2007 following a cease and desist letter from Universal Edition.^[53]