While many in the world were worried about the Covid 19 pandemic, and with good reason, particularly as reports came in that pets and other animals were potentially vulnerable to it, which raised potential issues that Animalians might also be vulnerable to the virus, other parts of the world had other issues as well. Maelewano wasn't as big of a tourist destination as some of the other Animalian Colonies, its set up to try and also provide shelter to people that had fled some of the various wars in Africa did keep somethings busy, and got plenty of help from both the host country but also from the UN.
It lead to Maelewano taking up the largest land area of any of Animalia's colony cities with small villages set up in a circle around a central airfield where tourists and or refugees could come on to visit. Each village had some means of protection to keep Africa's major predators from coming in, and the Animalian guards and rangers did their best to make sure that people's livestock was also protected while in the area. They often had to balance things out, as what tourism that Maelewano did see often related to people coming in to see African wildlife, both uplifted and unuplifted. It was that tourism that the global pandemic had stopped, but this wasn't the problem that presently plagued the colony city and its villages. That issue was being discussed before the governing council and the UN representatives that helped manage Maelewano.
"They're getting all into the grain we've tried to grow and store one man spoke, shaking his fist wildly in the air in a circular motion, "I got a few of them out... but they're still all around our village."
"One got into my wife's clothes when she went out to fill the trough with water for our goats!" said another, "she screamed trying to get it out and was greatly startled... there's got to be something you can do."
"It has been fairly dry," one of the UN representatives sighed heavily from his seat, "I've had some calls... a good portion of the whole region... Kenya, Tanzania, and the neighboring countries as well... it would seem like the locust swarms are fiercer this year than before."
The Animalians that ran the council that governed the Animalian residents that had Maelewano as their permeant home gave a slow nod, but were a bit unsure on what all they could do. The African plains generally teamed with life, and they'd done their best to balance it out so that Maelewano didn't upset the natural world too much and that the Humans fleeing human problems would at least have temporary safety until they could return home. If they couldn't, they'd at least have a place of welcome to survive where they could be welcomed and protected. At times it was something that could have issues, as many of the people had come to Maelewano with livestock they didn't want eaten by predators, or grew certain crops that would be tough to grow in Maelewano's soil that would be wrecked if local herbivores ate it.
It thus kept teams of predatory Animalians to mark out "territory" around Maelewano to keep major predators out, as well as others to try to herd larger herbivorous animals away from crops. However, the dryer weather had presented other crisis that was unexpected, and that was a practical plague of locusts descending on them. They were too small to be herded away, and there was often enough of them that they could quite quickly eat crops for people or for livestock. Some unuplifted birds and other insect predators followed, but they could only eat so much and locusts had generally evolved a means to negate those worries... breed in insanely high numbers, and thus no matter how many insects were eaten, there would always be more. It was this "plague" that had brought some of the village leaders to the main area that was the most built up part of Maelewano.
"There must be something that could be done..." one of the Animalian representatives commented as he looked to the UN officials and then to the Horizon representative. He was a Wildebeest Animalian and his ears were on full alert as he turned his head, "catch them... move them somewhere else..."
"Then they'd only move on and become someone else's problem or come back here," the UN representative sighed, noting the nods from the village leaders, "that's one of the reasons things like locusts have been considered a sort of plague for centuries..."
"But different from this virus," the Wildebeest Animalian commented, to which the UN representative nodded.
"Technologically, we lay down killers that would kill the locusts... or at least that is what they would do in the US," the Horizon scientist spoke, "but a lot of that is going to contain an element of timing. For while pesticides can kill the insects that may eat the plants, if put on the plant at the wrong period of the growing cycle... or after it's been harvested... all that's been done is put something in place that would be a poison to ANYTHING that ate it, pest or otherwise. In this, the farmers here could spray their plants and then kill themselves or their livestock by ingesting the poison."
"Which would be bad for the ecology in general," said a Lion Animalian with a low tone, "for it would also mean that the predator Animalians here would be deprived of their hunting season... if the portion of the food chain from which all life starts... is poisoned."
There were many nods of agreement that followed.
"What of the Baboon Animalians... can they help?" the Lion Animalian then asked to one of the village leaders.
He referred to a couple troops of Yellow Baboons that had been uplifted when they wandered in and ultimately took up residence between a couple of the villages. While Baboons weren't necessarily true predators, they could bite and weren't averse to taking livestock at times throughout their natural range, and with their teeth they could be a danger to people as well. Thus when the troops didn't leave, they were uplifted and joined some of the ranks of rangers and workmen that helped maintain the colony at Maelewano. Once uplifted, they actually proved to be quite good handymen and helped repair buildings in the villages and took part in some of the projects to bring running water from the main building everyone was presently in to at least the village centers. In this they proved quite helpful.
"They've caught and eaten some... " the first village leader spoke, "and they have been helpful... but they can't catch all of them..."
"It's helpful... but not enough," the second village leader added.
"We may need something that would feed more on insects than just the Baboon Animalians," the Horizon scientist commented, "baboons are omnivorous and insects can feature into their diet... but it isn't exclusive to their diet."
"What about some of the birds that have followed them?" the second village leader asked, "many of them flew in after the locusts did... and they've eaten plenty... but they're still small and thus can't eat as much."
"We could uplift them," the Horizon representative said slowly and then looked to the UN representative, "but we may need to identify the specific species. As we don't want to uplift and remove potentially endangered species through the uplifting process... Even if the birds would only be here temporarily because they've followed the locusts or found the locusts as they came here... we can't over react to things. Not to mention that with some of the restrictions the US government has placed on travel at present... we don't have many raw elements of the Animalia Virus here..."
"Among those that wouldn't be in danger of extinction... would they still help?" the UN representative wondered.
"Data with all Animalians would indicate that even after uplifting, their diets would generally be geared to feed on what they eat before being uplifted," the Horizon representative spoke, "birds that eat meat, ranging from red meat to insects would still be able to do so... and would often favor what they would normally eat. Thus a Martial Eagle Animalian COULD eat insects, but wouldn't prefer it while a bird that does predominantly eat insects might be able to safely digest a steak, but would prefer insects... How that will relate to the herbivorous Dinotopians... I don't know, since much of the plant material that exists today didn't appear until near the end of the Cretaceous…"
"Elephants are already big enough," one of the village leaders answered, "if your uplifting process can get us help against these locusts... we would accept that."
"And until we can uplift enough birds to put a dent in their numbers... we'll encourage the Baboon Animalians to help as much as they can," the Wildebeest Animalian spoke, "Maybe even get the Bird Animalians that already live here to help as well."
"Yes, we will do all that we can to help you," the Lion Animalian added to the nods of the others.