THE SERENGETI:

TANZANIA CENTRAL EAST AFRICA

Serengeti: Home of the largest terrestrial migration in the world, which secures it as one of The Seven Natural Wonders of Africa, and one of the ten natural travel wonders of the world. The “Wonder” is both a PLACE and an EVENT.

It’s name sounds as if it were a place maybe in Italy. But it is probably one of the most amazing places on earth. It is in Tanzania, which is in central eastern Africa. The Serengeti National Park in Tanzania is the namesake area of some 12,000 square miles set aside as a preserve for one of the world’s most interesting annual natural occurrences: The Great Migration of millions of animals.

It is renowned as home to 70 large mammal and 500 bird species, huge populations of Blue wildbeests *, gazelles, zebras, kopjes, grasslands, woodlands.

Serengeti is derived from the Maasai language, Maa: specifically, “Serengit” meaning “Endless Plains.”

THE GREAT MIGRATION

Each year the circular great wildbeest migration begins and loops in a clockwise direction. The great migration is a natural phenomenon determined by the availability of grazing. It begins in January when calving season begins. This is the rainy season when there is abundant rain-ripened grass for the 260,000 zebra and 1.700,000 wildbeests, 470,000 gazelles and hundreds of thousands of other plains game. As the rains end in May the herds move northwest to the Grumeti River and remain until June. They arrive in Kenya the end of August where they stay for the dry season. The migration then moves south in November and returns to the beginning of the loop in December only to start over again in January. Wildbeest is the correct spelling. It is a large antelope-like creature.

To appreciate the magnitude of the migration think of a city of at least 3,000,000 (Think: Chicago) moving inside a 12,00 square mile complete circle every year!