Serengeti National Park is undoubtedly the best wildlife sanctuary in the world, unequalled for its natural beauty and scientific value; it has the greatest concentration of plains game in Africa. The park is home to the greatest wildlife spectacle on earth - the great migration of wildebeest and zebra as well as the resident population of lion, cheetah, elephant, giraffe, and birds is impressive.
The Serengeti ecosystem is one of the oldest on earth. The essential features of climate, vegetation and fauna have barely changed in the past million years. Early man himself made an appearance in Olduvai Gorge about two million years ago. Some patterns of life, death, adaptation and migration are as old as the hills themselves.
The park covers 14,763 sq km.
It is the Great Migration for which Serengeti is perhaps most famous for and the season is upon us as Tanzania’s wildlife experiences its phenomenon spectacle as million wildebeest and 200,000 zebras flow from the northern hills to the southern plains.
So strong is the ancient instinct to move that no drought, gorge or crocodile infested river can hold them back. The Wildebeest travel through a variety of parks, reserves and protected areas and through a variety of habitat.
September sees the herds spread out across the northern Serengeti where the Mara River provides the migration with its most serious obstacle. This river gushes through the northern Serengeti from Masai Mara. Watching the wildebeest migration crossing the Mara River can be spectacular. Often there are scenes of panic and confusion as the animals attempt to cross. Come October the herds of wildebeests are migrating again as they head south through the western Loliondo and Serengeti National park’s Lobo area returning to the green shoots of the short grass plains
Explore the different forms of vegetation and landscapes of the Serengeti and meet some of their most fascinating inhabitants.