The magic of Serengeti National Park is not easy to describe in words. It’s the only place where you can witness millions of migrating wildebeest over the Acacia plains, it’s the cradle of human life, and probably the closest to an untouched African wilderness you will ever get: welcome to Serengeti National Park.
Serengeti National Park is found in the Republic of Tanzania and covers an area of about 5,700 square miles. The Serengeti lies in the northwestern part of the country continues to Kenya in what is referred to as the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Proclaimed a national park in 1951, and designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1981, the Serengeti is a special place indeed. Serengeti National Park was one of the first sites listed as a World Heritage Site when United Nations delegates met in Stockholm in 1981.
It is the oldest national park in Tanzania and is what draws most tourists to the country. The name Serengeti is got from the Maasai word Siringet (meaning a place where land stretches forever). By definition, the meaning of the word Serengeti translates to 'open endless plains.' Serengeti is actually a word used by the Masaai people.
Among Africa's many savanna regions, the Serengeti (or Serengeti Plains) is the most well-known. The Serengeti is a vast, undulating plain that stretches 30,000 square kilometers (11,583 square miles) from Kenya's Maasai-Mara game reserve to Tanzania's Serengeti National Park. The park covers 14,750 km2 (5,700 sq mi) of grassland plains, savanna, riverine forest, and woodlands. The park lies in northwestern Tanzania, bordered to the north by the Kenyan border, where it is continuous with the Maasai Mara National Reserve.
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 and animals. Whether you are looking for big cats, birds or even smaller creatures: Serengeti National Park delivers.
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The park is listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a World Heritage Site. To protect the Eco-system in the park further, it has also been designated as a Category II protected area by IUCN.
Here are some facts about Serengeti National Park:
- The Serengeti Is Located in North-Central Tanzania, Bordering Kenya. The park is situated in north-central Tanzania, right on the border with Kenya, spanning a whopping 30,000 square kilometers.
- The Serengeti Is a Prime Location for Luxury Safaris. Compared to some of Tanzania's other national parks, the Serengeti is seen as the preferred option among luxury travelers heading off on a safari.
- The Serengeti National Park is a large national park in northern Tanzania that stretches over 14,763 km2 (5,700 sq mi).
- The Serengeti is well known for the largest annual animal migration in the world of over 1.5 million western white-bearded wildebeest and 250,000 Grant's zebra, along with between 400-500,000 Thomson's gazelle and smaller herds of common eland.
- The national park is also home to the largest lion population in Africa.
- The Serengeti National Park has granite rocks which are scattered around the park, commonly known as kopjes. These Kopjes dot the vast savannah plains of the Serengeti National Park, and are a perfect sitting area for lions and other predators which use them as hiding grounds as they spot out their next prey watchfully.
- With sun-warmed rocks, vegetation for shade, and their elevation several meters above the plains, kopjes are a favorite resting spot for lions.
- The Serengeti National Park is one of the oldest national parks in Africa.
- The Serengeti National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognized for her unique ecosystem and diverse wildlife.
- The Maasai tribe are the original and indigenous inhabitants of the park and the areas around it, which they still do inhabit to date. The Maasai people lived and coexisted with the animals and all that the park entailed, grazing their cattle alongside with animals.
You will soon realise that amazement doesn’t have boundaries in this world-renowned National Park of Tanzania.
Great Migration/ Battle for Survival/ Wildebeest Crossing River Crocodile - Serengeti National Park
History of Serengeti National Park
The Masai lived in the Serengeti plains for over 200 years before the first European explorer Oscar Baumann arrived in the area in 1892. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, explorers and missionaries described the Serengeti plains and the massive numbers of animals found there.
At that time, the Serengeti had arguably the largest number of big game in Africa and because of that attracted sport hunters from both Europe and the United States. It was uncontrolled hunting of lions that forced the British colonial administration to turn it into a partial game reserve in 1921. By 1929 it had become a full reserve.
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An area of 2,286 square 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 Protected Area Status was conferred to the area and the National Park itself was established in 1951, then covering southern Serengeti and the Ngorongoro highlands.
This paved way for the eventual establishment of the Serengeti National Reserve 1951. By this time the Ngorongoro Conservation area was also part of the Serengeti. 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.
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, thus creating a permanent corridor allowing the wildebeests to migrate from the Serengeti plains in the south to the Loita Plains in the north.
The Serengeti National Park was among the first places to be proposed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO at 1972 Stockholm conference.
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Wildlife in Serengeti National Park
Today, most visitors come here with one aim alone: to witness millions of wildebeest, 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 seasonal pattern, defined by rainfall and grass nutrients. These large herds of animals on the move can’t be witnessed anywhere else.
The Serengeti is home to one of the continent's highest concentrations of large mammal species, including lions, hyenas, zebras, giraffes, and elephants. Each year, more than one million wildebeest travel in a circular migration, following seasonal rains, across the Serengeti Plains. The great wildebeest migration is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and it takes place in the Serengeti National Park. Witnessing the great migration is the most sought after and popular event in Serengeti National Park.
Each year over 1.5 million wildebeest, 300,000 gazelles and 200,000 zebras migrate in different sections of the park and then to the Masai Maara National Reserve. This phenomenon is described as one of the 10 natural wonders of the world and attracts thousands of tourists to the park each year.
The complete migration route is around 800 km (500 mi). South of this migration route covers the Ngorongoro Conservation Area where around half a million wildebeest are born between January and March. By March, at the beginning of the dry season, roughly 1.5 million wildebeest and 250,000 zebras start to migrate north towards Maasai Mara in Kenya. Common eland, plains zebra, and Thomson's gazelle join the wildebeest. In April and May, the migrating herds pass through the Western Corridor. To get to the Maasai Mara, the herds have to cross the Grumeti and Mara Rivers, where around 3,000 crocodiles lie in wait. For every wildebeest captured by the crocodiles, 50 drown. When the dry season ends in late October, the migrating herds start to head back south.
Even though, for many travellers, the migration is one of the main reasons to visit Serengeti National Park, it’s worth looking beyond this immense spectacle. First of all, nature can’t 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 don’t let this discourage you: there are plenty of other reasons to visit the Serengeti. If it’s 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 colours, or the primal feeling of excitement when a deep dark-grey thunderstorm appears on the broad horizon.
The Serengeti is also home to other grazers like the topi, hippos, warthogs, hartebeest, waterbucks, giraffes, impala, eland, bushbucks, klipspringer, lesser kudus, roan antelopes, dik dik and Oryx.
Although the migrating grazers are a key attraction, it is the big 5 (Lions, Leopards, Elephants, Rhinos and Buffaloes) that brings tourists to the park throughout the year. Spotting the Big 5 is a must for many travelers, and you'll be able to see all of them in the Serengeti National Park, including lions, elephants, rhinos, buffalos, and leopards. There are quite a few of each of the Big 5 species scattered generously throughout the Serengeti. Although rhinos can be a bit trickier to find, it's not impossible. Spotting the Big 5 is readily available to see within the Serengeti National Park all year round.
The Serengeti is home to the largest population of lions in Africa - over 2,500 individuals. The cats thrive in the park mainly because of an abundance of prey. About 1,000 leopards call the park home while 5,000 elephants can be sighted in the park. Less than 50 black rhinos roam the Serengeti plains and this is because of uncontrolled poaching which occurred during the 1970’s and 80’s.
Apart from the already mentioned herbivores and big 5, the Serengeti is also home to cheetahs, hyenas, serval cats, jackals, wild dogs, otters, honey badgers, mongoose and the African golden wolf. There are also hyraxes, ground pangolin, crested porcupine, cape hare, bat-eared fox, aardwolf and aardvark. The primates in the park include baboons, vervet monkeys, black and white colobus monkeys.
There is no better place in the world for spotting lions.
Not only is the Serengeti an excellent place for some animal spotting, but it's also a key location for birdwatchers. The park is home to around 500 bird species in total. There are over 500 bird species recorded in Serengeti National Park, which perfectly blend the park’s wildlife species. With over 500 birds in Serengeti National Park, the park is indeed a birder’s paradise with travelers being able to spot quite a good number of bird species. Over 500 species of birds call the Serengeti National Park home and these include yellow-billed stork, vultures, southern ground hornbill, secretary birds, oxpeckers, Masai ostrich, martial eagles, marabou storks, lovebirds, lesser flamingo, kori bustards, helmeted Guinea fowls, Grey-breasted spur fowl and crowned cranes just to mention a few.
When it comes to reptiles, the Serengeti is home to the serrated hinged terrapin, rainbow agama, puff adder, Nile monitor, Nile crocodile, leopard tortoise, chameleons, black-necked spitting cobra, black mamba and African python.
The Maasai People
Even though 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) lived in this area for almost 4 million years. Today, Serengeti National Park is still home to several indigenous tribes.
Many local tribes, including the Maasai people, live throughout the Serengeti. The Maasai tribe is arguably the most famous tribe associated with Tanzania. Some of their people live on the Kenyan side of the border, while others reside on the Tanzanian side. However, due to legislation, their movements have been more limited in recent times on the Tanzanian side.
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. The genuine smiles of the Maasai people, giving you an immediate warming glow inside.
They're a tribe that has deep traditions which come from the northwest of Kenya and South Sudan. You can easily identify them through their red clothing and the unique ornate jewelry that they wear. One other interesting fact about the Maasai is how important cattle are to their society; cattle are seen as a sign of wealth in the community, and they're often traded as a source of revenue.
In contrast to other tribes in Tanzania, the Maasai people are quite open and easily contactable for tourists with a certified guide. Apart from the wildlife, there is also the possibility of going for an amazing cultural experience in Tanzania with the Maasai Tribe in their villages. On a typical visit, the Maasai will take you to their homestead (known as bomas) to learn about their nomadic way of life, traditional dress code, marriage ceremonies, education system and their ancient tradition of keeping domestic animals.
Serengeti's Landscape
The landscape of the Serengeti Plain is extremely varied, ranging from savannah to hilly woodlands to open grasslands. The region's geographic diversity is due to the extreme weather conditions that plague the area, particularly the potent combination of heat and wind.
The Serengeti National Park is divided into three main sectors or regions - The Serengeti plains, Western Corridor and Northern Serengeti.
- Serengeti plains: The best-known feature of the Serengeti is the almost treeless grassland in the south. It has koppies, granite formations that serve as observation posts for predators. The Serengeti plains is the most famous sector of the park and consists of endless grassland which are only interrupted by rocky hills (Kopjes) with vegetation. It is where most of the hoofed animals like wildebeest breed and feed from. Predators like lions, pythons and hyrax use the Kopjes to hide or observe grazing prey.
- Western corridor: The main geographic feature is the pair of rivers, Grumeti and Mbalageti. There are big groups of riverine forest and some small mountain ranges. The great migration passes through the corridor from May to July. It stretches to Lake Victoria. The western corridor on the other hand consists of rivers and forest. It is where you find martial eagles, crocodiles, hippos and patas monkeys.
- Northern Serengeti: The landscape is dominated by open woodlands, predominantly Commiphora and hills, ranging from Seronera in the south to the Mara River on the Kenyan border. It is remote and relatively inaccessible. The Northern Serengeti is dominated by hills and open woodlands. It is the best place to see giraffe, dik and elephants. It is very close to the Maasai Mara National Reserve and is where migrating wildebeest pass through when crossing to Kenya.
When you're out on a game drive throughout the Serengeti plains of Tanzania, one of the main features you'll notice is the Kopjes. These natural landforms are granite islands that date back millions of years ago when volcanic bubbles made their way up to the earth's surface and firmed up over time. However, due to the high rainfall that the Serengeti experiences yearly, the Kopjes have been eroding at a rapid pace, although some of them are still very robust in appearance.
Visiting Serengeti National Park
Whereas other famous wildlife parks are fenced, the Serengeti is protected, but unfenced. Giving animals enough space to make their return journey, one that they’ve been doing for millions of years.
Tourism brings over 100,000 international travelers to the park each year. The money collected from tourism is important in supporting wildlife conservation efforts, communities living near the park, research and other projects in the national park.
The day game drives are designed purposely to allow visitors spot the big 5 mammals. This requires a 4X4 tour van because it involves driving for a long time and deep in the park. Game drives are done in the morning, afternoon and at night. The night game drives are designed to allow visitors spot nocturnal creatures (skinks, nightjars, crub hare, civets, chameleons, bush babies, bat-eared fox and aardvarks just to mention a few) The game drives go all the way up to the famous hippo pool and to the Ngorongoro crater. Night game drives are also excellent for watching the endless battles between predator and prey.
Similar to the game drives is watching the great migration. Unlike normal game drives that go on throughout the year, witnessing the wildebeest migration depends on the particular month of the year. It is also important to mention that one can view the big 5 and the migration from the sky using hot air balloons. An aerial view of the vast wilderness and Kopjes (giant rock formations with grass that look like islands) will give you a completely different perspective of the park.
The Serengeti National Park is excellent for birding. Birders should expect to spot over 500 species of both resident and migratory birds if they have the time.
Best time to visit
The best time to visit the Serengeti depends on what activities you are looking at and the section of the park you would be visiting. The best time for game drives is between June to October. These months find the park dry and with sparse vegetation hence allowing for better wildlife viewing.
Where to stay
If you are wondering where to stay while on a safari in the Serengeti National Park, then you don’t need worry. There are several luxury, mid-range and budget hotels found within and outside the park.
How to get there
Serengeti National Park can be reached by air and road. The nearest airport and link to the park is Kilimanjaro international airport in Arusha. Air Burundi, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airways, Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, KLM and ZanAir all have flights to Kilimanjaro. From Kilimanjaro International Airport, one would need to book a smaller plane to one of the airstrips in the park or hire a car to go by road. The route by road starting from Arusha takes anywhere between 7 to 8 hours.
Entrance fees
If you are organizing a safari on your own, you need to know that the entrance fee per day is $60 for adults $20 for children. Children under 5 years enter for free.
Attractions near Serengeti National Park
Between the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater is Olduvai Gorge. It is where the Leaky family discovered over sixty human fossils dating back to over two million years ago. Olduvai Gorge is one of the leading paleoanthropological sites in the world.
When leaving the park, do not forget to visit the Serengeti Visitor Center. You can take a walk around the center to learn more about the park, its history, the ecosystem and wildlife. The Center has beautiful gardens and is excellent for relaxation or picnics.
The government body responsible for managing the Serengeti National Park is the Tanzania National Parks Authority with support from several wildlife conservation Agencies.
Threats and Conservation
Since the park’s establishment, various threats to the animal populations there have been observed. The last of the Serengeti’s wild dogs disappeared in 1991; it is possible that the local extinction was due to increasing competition from the growing hyena and lion populations, coupled with an outbreak of disease. An epidemic of canine distemper caused the deaths of nearly one-third of the area’s lions in 1994. Humans have also posed a danger to the animal population, killing elephants for their ivory tusks, slaughtering the critically endangered black rhinoceros for its horn, and poaching game animals for meat.
Deforestation in the Mau Forest region has changed the hydrology of the Mara River. There are invasive species of plants such as Siam weed, Prickly pear, Feverfew and Mexican sunflower. A study in 1996 estimated that the human population of the western side of the park is growing by four percent yearly. Livestock use is also growing which increased the amount of land turned over to farming and ranching.
Between 2005 and 2012 the government considered building a 452-km highway through the park, a proposal revived in 2024. The idea sparked significant controversy. Advocates argued that the road would improve connectivity and alleviate poverty in northern Tanzania, while conservationists warn of severe ecological impacts, including disruption of the wildebeest migration and potential ecosystem collapse.
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