Today, the Great Migration attracts safari enthusiasts worldwide, who flock to witness the natural phenomenon of over one million wildebeest and other grazing herbivores making their annual journey following the rains from the Maasai Mara to the Serengeti. But this incredible place offers far more than the Great Migration and, with abundant wildlife, offers year-round game viewing. Another important phenomenon that happens in the Serengeti is the carving season when the animals give birth in February to March every year.
The Serengeti’s vast plans and reaches help the black rhino fight extinction and provides a protected breeding ground for the vulnerable cheetah. Its rolling plains are also home to big cats, buffalo, elephant, giraffe, eland, hyena and impala – to name but a few. At Serengeti witness predator versus prey and the fundamental interdependence of the Serengeti’s abundant species, from more than 500 varieties of bird to 100 types of dung beetle.
The park is broadly divided into four areas. The central Seronera Valley has a year-round water supply and is the most popular region to visit, and the Western Corridor follows the crocodile-inhabited Grumeti River up towards Lake Victoria. The Northern Serengeti is less accessible and therefore quieter, while the Southern Serengeti is dominated by the vast plains.
Nearby, Olduvai Gorge is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world, known as the ‘cradle of mankind’. Here is where some of the earliest humanoid remains were found.
The Serengeti has been described as a sense of seeing to the ends of the earth, the sun-burnt savannah shimmering to the horizon. Yet after the rains this golden horizon is magically transformed into an endless carpet flecked with wildflowers. Not forgetting the wooded hills, towering termite molds and rocky kopjes, rivers lined with elegant stands of fig trees, ebony and acacia, stained orange by dust. It is so vast you may be the only human audience when a pride of lions masterminds a siege, focuses unswervingly on their next meal.
Why Visit Serengeti National Park, Northern Tanzania.
- Visit a UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
- Visit what is undoubtedly one of the world’s most celebrated wilderness areas that is an ongoing source of inspiration to writers, filmmakers and photographers.
- The annual Great Migration - an estimated three million antelope, mostly wildebeest migrate to Kenya’s Masai Mara Game Reserve.
- It is Tanzania’s oldest game reserve, renowned as the site of the annual Great Migration, when an estimated three million antelope – mostly wildebeest — migrate to Kenya’s Masai Mara Game Reserve. This epic, seasonal journey is a deeply moving experience and a wonderful photographic subject.
- Big Five National Park with a huge concentration of cats.
