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INTRODUCTION ABOUT THE SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK
Although thousands of writers have used the power of the pen, to put down their ideas on paper, in many different ways about the Serengeti national park, their work may be summed up in a few words only: from the wildlife point of view "The Serengeti national park is the most unique area in the world”.
Serengeti – a name that seems to conjure up all that is wildest in wildest Africa is the oldest, second largest and best known national park in Tanzania. Admittedly, over the years it ha been at the forefront of international research on various ecological monitoring programmes and other related disciplines leading ot ecosystem dynamics as well as the development of conservation management.
This be chunk of land with an area of 14, 763sq km was first protected in 1921 and it became the first national park in 1951. Its Diamond jubilee was celebrated in January 1981.
HISTORY
The park borders the ngorongoro conservation area; to the south there is the maswa game reserve while to the north there is the Kenya – Tanzania border which forms the boundary with the maasai mara national reserve of Kenya.
The name Serengeti is derived from the maasai word “ Siringet”, which means, “ and extended area or endless plain”. A corridor extends to within 8km of the shores of lake Victoria. An all weather murram road connets seronera and ndabaka Gate which serves visitors from mwanza or musoma via bunda. There is also an all weather murram road which joins seronera and musoma via the ikoma gate.
The same road branches off at ikizu and continues to bunda and mwanza to the west. From arusha, one may drive south – westerly on a tarmac road for about 80km, then branch off to the right at makuyuni n a equally good tarmac road for about 80km to lodoare gate on the periphery of the ngorongoro highlands. From the gate to seronera in the Serengeti national park, the stretch is an all weather raod. A drive to seronera, 335 km away from Arusha, may take close to six hours at a normal driving speed.
Altitudes range from 920 to 1850 meters above sea level. Seronera, the former park headquarters, is at 1530 meters. In the interest of natural preservation, the headquarters has been shifted to fort Ikoma – the former Germany fort – in the periphery. The Serengeti national park has seven major habitat types. In turn, these habitats have a diversity of plant community assemblage that change according to topographic gradients. These are: |
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- Forest: Evergreen forest – the forest is limited to riverine and springhead stands
- Woodland : - Semi – deciduous woodland dominated by Combretum and Terminalia spp- semi – deciduous to deciduous thorn – tree woodland which is dominated by Acacia and Commiphora species
- Wooded grassland: semi – deciduous thorn – tree wooded grassland dominated by balanites aeyptiaca on poorly drained black – cotteon clay soils
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The Serengeti national park is a host of many scenic features. Take the grassland savannah plains for instance; these extensive treeless short grassland plains are repository for calving wildebeest. From December to may each year, up to two million ungulates graze in the area. However, aprt from ungulates, the park has about 7,500 hyenas and 2,800 lions in a spectacular setting. In total, there are over 10,000 predators including cheetah and leopard etc.
But the wilderness is another attraction of its own kind. It is the second biggest after Ruaha national park. Access to many of these areas is very difficult and the areas have been purposefully underutilized in terms of tourism in order to retain their conservation value. Additionally, copjes are a characteristic feature on the plains and form discrete bio – geographical island habitats and serve as vantage points for both prey and predators and pontentially safer areas in which some carnivores ( e.g cheetah and leopard ) may hide their young.
There are over 500 species of birds that are |
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perennially or seasonally present in the park. The Serengeti has the highest ostrich population in Tanzania and probably Africa. Nevertheless, the most outstanding feature of the Serengeti is its fauna. It contains the greatest remaining concentration of plains game in Africa, and on a scale which has no parallel anywhere in the world.
This abundance of herbivores includes wilderbeest, zebras gazelle, topi, buffalo, hartebeest to mention, but a few in an almost endless variety. But the most spectacular and world famous sight is the Serengeti animal migration.
The Serengeti Migration
The endless plains of east Africa are the setting for the world’s greatest wildlife spectacle - the 1.5 million animal ungulate (wildebeest) migration. From the vast Serengeti plains to Masai Mara (Kenya). Over 1.4 million wildebeest and 200,000 zebra and gazelle, relentlessly tracked by Africa’s great predators, migrate in a clockwise fashion over 1,800 miles each year in search of rain ripened grass. |
There is no real beginning or end to a wildebeest's journey. Its life is an endless pilgrimage, a constant search for food and water. The only beginning is at the moment of birth. An estimated 400,000 wildebeest calves are born during a six week period early each year - usually between late January and mid-March. This spectacle takes place in Serengeti National Park / Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Even discounting the migration the Serengeti is superb. But the migration puts the park in a league of its own. It is, quite simply, the greatest wildlife show on Earth. Two million animals at times, mostly wildebeest and zebras, moving around an ecosystem 25,000 sq. km. in area, almost as big as the state of Massachusetts. But a lot wilder.
At its most spectacular the Serengeti migration is one of the few experiences that really justify the word “awesome”, but to see it you have to know where and when to go, and it isn’t as predictable as some people might think, though over a period it does follow a fairly regular pattern. We will assume on this web-site that we are talking of a typical year – but just remember that wildebeests and zebras don’t use the Internet...
There is no beginning or end to the migration but we’ll imagine it all starts with the onset of the “rainy season” (don’t be put off by this expression as the “green season”, as it is now often called, is a lovely time of year and usually nowhere near as wet or dismal as it sounds). The rains tend to begin around mid-November, when the big herds start to file into the south-eastern short-grass plains, around Naabi Hill, Lake Ndutu, the Gol Kopjes, Oldupai Gorge and all other parts of the short-grass plains.
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Between late January and mid-March the wildebeest calving season takes place. At its peak about 80% of the pregnant females give birth within three weeks, collectively producing something like 8,000 babies each day. The large predators, of course, are on hand to take advantage of this glut.
Between mid-May and the month’s end, as the plains dry out, the whole menagerie, as if at the wave of a magic wand, streams off in columns which are sometimes 40 km. long, heading via the Moru Kopjes for the Western Corridor. On the way, the wildebeest rut takes place, for a period of about three weeks, from around mid-June to early July. Dr. Richard Estes, the greatest authority on the Serengeti wildebeest, has described the event as “unbelievably spectacular”. It is certainly chaotic, as something like 250,000 males strive to mate with as many of the 750,000-or-so females as they can.
Between June and August the migrating animals drink from and eventually cross the Grumeti River, but for many it will be their last drink or their last river crossing. For here in the Grumeti are crocodiles that grow to over five metres in length and weigh more than three-quarters of a tonne. They have jaws so thickset and powerful that they can crush a wildebeest's head like a melon, then tear the body into bloody rags. Usually after yanking the victim into the water.
The great majority of wildebeest survive, to cross the Ikoma Controlled Area outside the park then pass through the Serengeti’s Northern Extension, crossing the next challenging river, the Mara, in July or August. Most but not all of the wildebeest and zebras also cross the Kenyan border a little way beyond, to remain in the Maasai Mara Reserve until about mid-October, when they begin the return journey. This takes them down the eastern boundary of the Northern Extension, in and out of the park, and eventually back to the short-grass plains. The 1000 km. trek – for those which make it - is complete.
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Things to remember if you want to see the migration:
1) Decide which time of year you want to go to the Serengeti and choose a lodge or camp that will (hopefully!) put you within easy reach of the migration at that time. A few hints are given in the appropriate sector on hotels and lodges (Northern Circuit). drop us an email and we will assist you accordingly.
2) Don’t be put off by the term “rainy season”. It is one of the best times of year in which to see the migration.
3) Remember that you can almost always reach the migration from any lodge or camp within the Serengeti at almost any time, if you are prepared, in some cases, for a long drive.
4) Don’t make the mistake of thinking that if you don’t see the migration your trip to the Serengeti will be pointless. All parts of the Serengeti are interesting at all times, though the south-eastern plains, from about June to mid-November, are relatively empty (this doesn’t rule out the Lake Ndutu or Seronera localities, which have resident game even when the migration is absent).
*Note - the migration is a natural event and the timing varies month by month; year by year.
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