The Great Serengeti Migration
The great Migration of the Serengeti is considered one of “The Ten Wonders of The Natural World”, and one of the best events in Tanzania to witness. A truly awe-inspiring spectacle of “life and death“ in an expansive ecosystem ruled by rainfall and the urge for survival amongst the herbivores of the Serengeti plains.
The journey for the key players in this circular great wildebeest migration is highly weather dependent and dynamic, it begins in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area of the southern Serengeti in Tanzania and loops in a clockwise direction through the Serengeti National Park and north towards the Masai Mara reserve in Kenya.
It is a favourite season for many of the seasoned Serengeti guides: the air during these months is full of new life and action. Predators like lions and hyenas are constantly hunting for babies, thousands and thousands of calves are born within a couple weeks of each other – a feast for the eyes of true wildlife enthusiasts.
You should know that migration is a natural phenomenon determined by the availability of grazing. The initial phase lasts from approximately January to March, when the calving season begins – a time when there is plenty of rain-ripened grass available for the 260,000 zebra that precede 1.7 million wildebeest and the following hundreds of thousands of other plains game, including around 470,000 gazelles.
When the drought comes in May, the herd moves from north of Serengeti, to the Maasai Mara, chomping down the high green grass, quickly followed by the gazelles and zebras. The migration is not without risk: crossing rivers means facing about 3,000 crocodiles, patiently waiting for a kill. Not to mention the famous Serengeti lion population: by far the largest in Africa. Around this time a few calves are born ahead of others and of these, hardly any survive. The main reason is that very young calves are more noticeable to predators when mixed with older calves from the previous year and reasons as thirsty, hunger and exhaustion aren’t to be forgettable.
Despite the abundance of hoofed meat in this area, life is not easy for these big cats in this unforgiving landscape. But seeing a group of lions collaborating to hunt down a wildebeest is an unforgettable sight.
Then, with the beginning of the short rains in late October, the migration makes its way back into the Serengeti. By December, the herds trek past Seronera – a small settlement in central Serengeti where the official Serengeti Visitors’ Centre is located – to return to their calving grounds again, and the circle is complete.