The magnificent Serengeti National Park is probably what most people envisage when they imagine “real” Africa. Wide-open plains teeming with wildlife, animals roaming freely in search of food and water and beautiful and dramatic landscapes as far as the eye can see – this is the heartbeat of the Serengeti. The Serengeti harbours the greatest remaining concentration of wild game in Africa and is home to the annual phenomenon where millions of herbivores migrate en mass across the plains of Tanzania.
Africa’s paradise
The largest mass of free-ranging game on earth
The annual Great Migration
A World Heritage Site
“Serengeti” is derived from the Maasai word “Siringit” which means an extended place. The region is home to approximately a quarter of a million gazelles, two hundred thousand zebra and thousands of other herbivores, as well as huge prides of lion, high densities of cheetah and solitary leopards. The Serengeti region encompasses the Serengeti National Park itself, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Maswa Game Reserve, the Loliondo, Grumeti and Ikorongo Controlled Areas and merges with the Masai Mara National Park in Kenya.
The Serengeti’s unique ecosystem and abundant flora and fauna have inspired writers, photographers and filmmakers and it’s not difficult to see why.
Considered the longest and greatest show on earth, the Great Migration takes place every year and is quite a spectacle to behold! The 800 kilometre-long trek begins suddenly in late May or early June, depending on the weather conditions. Millions of wildebeest, zebra and Thomson’s gazelle move away from the short grass plains between the Ngorongoro Highlands and Seronera and head towards the north and west in search of water and fresh grass. In their wake follow predators hungry for an easy kill: lion, cheetah, hyena and hunting dogs, which ensure that only the fittest of herbivores survive. Vultures and other birds of prey also descend upon the weak and dying, or scavenge on the kills left by the predators.
The Migration moves west, then north crossing the Grumeti and Mara Rivers where hundreds more die through drowning, or being taken by predatory crocodiles. The survivors settle in the Western Corridor and northern reaches of the Serengeti and in the Masai Mara National Park in Kenya.
