The Serengeti, Tanzania’s
largest national park, supports the greatest concentration of plains
game in Africa. Frequently dubbed the eighth wonder of the world,
it was granted the status of a World Heritage Site in 1978. It was declared an
International Biosphere Reserve in 1981 for its natural splendour.
But it’s an equally important site for the emergence of man. Archaeologists have uncovered human evidence at the Olduvai Gorge
on the edge of the Serengeti that dates back 3.5 million years, suggesting
Tanzania may be the site of the origin of man. The name Serengeti
comes from the Masai word Siringitu – 'the place where
the land moves on forever'. These plains were formed 3-4 million
years ago when ash blown from the Kilimanjaro and Ngorongoro volcanoes
covered the rolling landscape. The park covers a whopping 14 763
sq km and is the centre of the Serengeti Ecosystem - the combination
of the Serengeti, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Kenya's Masai
Mara and four smaller game reserves. Within this region live an
estimated three million large animals. The system protects the
largest single movement of wildlife on earth - the annual wildebeest
migration.
Serengeti’s landscape ranges from the vast short and long
grass plains in the south, to the acacia savannah in the middle,
and wooded grassland concentrated around the Grumeti and Mara rivers.
The Seronera Valley in the middle is where most of the campsites are
located. The Seronera Lodge is probably the most reliable
game viewing location. Here it’s possible to spot many of
the Serengeti's resident wildlife including giraffe, buffalo, antelope,
hippo, crocodile, warthog and abundant birds. Large prides of lion
can be seen moving stealthily through the long grass or even wandering
through the unfenced campsites. (Serengeti’s adult males have
characteristic black manes.) Hearing a hyena snuffle at your tent
pegs at night is a common experience.
During the wet season in February and March, one of wildlife's
most amazing spectacles occurs. In only 3-4 weeks 90% of the
female wildebeest give birth, flooding the plains with thousands
of newborn calves each day. These new calves provide easy pickings
for larger scavengers and cats, and there’s very good reason
why wildebeest calves are able to be up and running within four
minutes of birth. The wildebeest may remain in the Serengeti for
several months until the plains dry out, and as these vast herds
of many thousands of grunting and snorting animals consume a staggering
4 000 tons of grass each day, they’re forced to march north
to the fresher pastures in the Masai Mara.
The annual migration of more than 1.5 million wildebeest as well as hundreds of thousands of zebras and gazelles is triggered by the rains. The wildebeest migrate
from the Serengeti usually from June, although changing weather
patterns due to El Nino in recent years have had an effect on the
exact months. It depends on the way the animals have to cross the
Mara River where massive Nile crocodiles with thickset jaws lick
their lips in anticipation of a substantial feed. The wildebeest
graze on both sides of the Mara River for several months before
heading south again to the new grasses in the Serengeti around October,
when the endless cycle of life begins again. For any visitor to
Tanzania, the herds are a spectacular sight: massed in
huge numbers, with the weak and crippled at the tail end of the procession,
and the vigilant predators hot on their heels.
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