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Care To Watch A Million Animals Migrate? Just Stream It

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

If you're about to book your safari to take in the great zebra and wildebeest migration from the Serengeti to Kenya's Masai Mara Reserve, hold off.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

This year, there is an easier and cheaper way.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Just to let everyone know, we are here and broadcasting live from the Masai Mara in Kenya.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: We can see some zebras and some wildebeests, some buffaloes, elephants.

SHAPIRO: That's from a feed that was on the live video streaming app Periscope today. A group called HerdTracker is leading the project from the banks of the Mara River.

SIEGEL: That's where we reached HerdTracker's Carel Verhoef. He says after people see these videos, maybe they will book that trip.

CAREL VERHOEF: That's why we're here, to show a little bit of what Kenya has to offer to the world.

SHAPIRO: But where there are wildebeests, don't expect Wi-Fi. The cost of presenting this live video stream from the Masai Mara...

VERHOEF: Thirty-eight dollars per minute of live broadcast.

SHAPIRO: Thirty-eight dollars per minute.

VERHOEF: Yes, the more remote you are the higher the cost.

SHAPIRO: (Laughter).

SIEGEL: The broadcast will continue twice a day through October 5. Viewer discretion is advised.

SHAPIRO: There are crocodiles in the Mara River. It can get gory.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE CIRCLE OF LIFE")

TWILLIE AND MORAKE: (Singing in foreign language). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Prior to his retirement, Robert Siegel was the senior host of NPR's award-winning evening newsmagazine All Things Considered. With 40 years of experience working in radio news, Siegel hosted the country's most-listened-to, afternoon-drive-time news radio program and reported on stories and happenings all over the globe, and reported from a variety of locations across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. He signed off in his final broadcast of All Things Considered on January 5, 2018.