About Serengeti National Park – The vast Serengeti or Serengeti Plains is the most popular African safari destination with undulating plain that stretches 30,000 square kilometers (11,583 square miles) from Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya to Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park.
Serengeti National Park is the only place where you can witness millions of migrating wildebeest over the acacia plains, the park is the cradle of human life and probably the closest to an untouched African wilderness you will ever get.
Welcome to Serengeti National Park where its ecosystem has remained the same for the past centuries and thousands of animals constantly on the move.
The greatest wildlife destination on earth
About Serengeti National Park – The magic of Serengeti National Park – it is hard to describe the magic of Serengeti in words, not only seeing but also hearing the buzz of millions of wildebeests so thick in the air that it vibrates through your entire body is something you will try to describe to your loved ones. Before realizing it is impossible.
About Serengeti National Park – Vistas of honey-lit plains at sunset, so beautiful. It is worth a trip to witness this spectacle. You will be welcomed and fascinated by the genuine smiles of the Maasai people giving you an immediate warming glow inside, or just feeling of constantly being amongst thousands of animals. It doesn’t matter what season of the migration you visit the Serengeti National Park, it is magical all year round.
The never-ending circle of the Great Migration
Serengeti National Park was one of the first sites listed as a World Heritage Site when United Nations delegates met in Stockholm in 1981, by the late 1950s – his area had already been recognized as a unique ecosystem providing us with many insights into how the natural world functions and showing us how dynamic ecosystems really are.
Today, the main reason why visitors come here is to witness millions of wildebeests, zebras, gazelles and elands on a mass trek to quench their thirst for water and eat fresh grass. During this great cyclical movement, these ungulates move around the ecosystem in a season pattern, defined by rainfall and grass nutrients. These large herds of animals on the move can’t be witnessed anywhere else. Whereas other famous wildlife parks are fenced, the Serengeti is protected but unfenced which gives animals enough space to make their return journey, one that they have been doing for millions of years.
Beyond the Great Migration
Even though the Great Migration is one of the main reasons to why travelers visit Serengeti National Park, it is worth looking beyond this immense spectacle. First of all, natural cannot be directed. Having realistic expectations of your chances to witness a river crossing or a large herd on the move is crucial. A river crossing for example often only lasts thirty minutes, so can be missed in the blink of an eye.
But this should not discourage you, there are plenty of other reasons to visit the Serengeti. If its not for this vast stretch of land where you can drive forever and never get enough, it might be for the incredible skies of dazzling colors, or the broad horizon. Or you might answer the lion’s call and come to the Serengeti for one of the largest concentrations of predators in the world, the herds support about 7,500 hyenas, 3,000 lions and 250 cheetahs. Elephants in the Serengeti amble over the plains into the woodlands, feasting on leaves and tree branches.
Tribes in the cradle of human life
Even though the animals still rule the plains of the Serengeti, this area has an incredibly long history of human occupation. Not only humans but also human ancestors (Australopithecus afarensi) who lived in this area for almost 4 million years.
Today, the park is still home to several indigenous tribes. One of the most famous tribes is the Maasai, this tribe is unique and popular due to their long – preserved culture. Despite education, civilization and western cultural influences. The Maasai people have clung to their traditional way of life, making them a symbol of Tanzanian and Kenyan culture.
Vibrancy, variety and vastness
The amazement doesn’t have boundaries in this world – renowned National Park of Tanzania, Serengeti is a transition area with distinct changeovers going from rich flat soils to poor hilly soils in the north attracting a wide variety of vegetation of animals. Whether you are looking for big cats, birds or even smaller creatures. Serengeti National Park always delivers, even to understand and experience just a small part of this ecosystem will change your vision on our world and the environment.
After being overwhelmed by the vibrancy, variety and vastness of this land, this place of transition will leave you changed forever.
History of Serengeti National Park
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, explorers and missionaries described the Serengeti Plains and the massive numbers of animals found there. Only minor details are all that were reported before explorations in the late 1920s and early 1930s supply the first references to the Great Wildebeest Migrations and the first photographs of the region.
An area of 2,286 kilometers was established in 1930 as a game reserve in what is now southern and eastern Serengeti. They allowed sport hunting activities until 1937, after which it stopped all hunting activities. In 1940, the area was granted Protected Area Status and the National Park itself was established in 1951, then covering southern Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Highlands. They based the park headquarters on the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater.
So, the original Serengeti National Park as it was gazetted in 1951, also included what now is the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA). In 1959, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area was split off from the Serengeti National Park and they extended the boundaries of the park to the Kenya border. The Key reason for splitting off the Ngorongoro area was that local Maasai residents realized that they were threatened with eviction and consequently not allow to graze their cattle within the national park boundaries. To counter this from happening, protests were staged.
A compromise was reached wherein the Ngorongoro Crater Area was split off from the national park, the Maasai may live and graze their cattle in the Ngorongoro Crater Area but not within Serengeti National Park boundaries.
In 1961, the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya was established and in 1965, the Lamai Wedge between the Mara River and Kenya border was added to Serengeti National Park this creating a permanent corridor allowing the wildebeests to migration from the Serengeti plains in the south to the Loita Plains in the north. The Maswa Game Reserve was established in 1962 and a small area north of The Grumeti River in the western corridor was added in 1967.
Serengeti National Park is among the first places to be proposed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO at 1972 Stockholm Conference, the park was formally established in 1981.
