History of the great Serengeti national park : The magic of Serengeti national park can be described in words instead having a self-experience and exploration will make more sense than having a narration. The beauty of the landscape, the great migration, the most specular sunset and sunrise as well as the warm welcoming smiles of the Masaai tribe found in this national park will attract you even more and make you feel at home.
The Serengeti national park is the largest national park in the northern part of Tanzania that covers the over 14,763 square kilometers. In the first place this national park was recognized as a game reserve layer on in around 1930 the government of Tanganyika established the system of national parks compliant with the convention relative to the preservation of Fauna and flora of their natural state and so it became a national park in 1940.the final borders of this national park where set clearly in the year 1951 by then the Ngorongoro conservation area was part of Serengeti national park, then nine years later that is in 1959 the Ngorongoro conservation area became separated from the Serengeti national park and became a separate national park.. The name Serengeti is a Maasai word “Serengit” which means the land of endless plains. The Maasai people are Sayed to live in this national park for over 200 years until today and their main activity is animal keeping and farming.
The park has mainly the 3 parts, one being the Seronera valley which is located on the southern part of the park, this park of the Serengeti is highly covered by a lot of wildlife and has the vegetation cover is savannah with dotted acacia trees this part is also called the Serengeti plains. Most of the wild animals found in this place are most hoofed animals like the wildebeest breed and feed from. Most of the predators are found here as the hide and wait for their prey.
The other part is the western part of the park which has the Grumeti River which is highly characterized with denser forests and bushes. In this part is where you will find most of the martial eagles, crocodiles, hippos and patas monkeys.
While the third part is the northern side that meets with the Maasai Mara reserve of Kenya this part of the national park normally has a little number of tourists that reaches here. The Serengeti national park is the oldest national park and that is being visited most by the tourists. This part is dominated by the hills as well as the open woodlands. The animals that are found in this area includes the giraffes, Dik Dik and the elephants. On this part is where the great migration movement normally occur as it is close to the Maasai Mara of Kenya hence this is their main route when moving away from Serengeti national park as well as towards it.
The wildlife of the Serengeti national park.
The Serengeti national park is highly famous due to the great migration as well as its biodiversity and abundant wildlife. This park has abundant of wild animals than any other national parks in Tanzania. There are over 1.5 million of wildebeest found in this national park hence this park is highly famous for the movement of the wildebeest as the move towards the Serengeti national park in dry seasons and again going back to the Maasai Mara on other season. There is a high number of wildebeest in this national park than even any other animals found here. There about 300,000 gazelles and 200,000 zebras that migrates annually. This park is also a home of other animals such as elephants, hippos, leopards, impalas, lions, buffalos, rhinos. The Serengeti national park is also the home of large population of lions, the number of lions in this national park is higher than in any national park in Tanzania, there are over 2,500 lions found here, History of the great Serengeti national park.
The great migration
The most thrilling spectacle in the animal kingdom is the annual mass movement of wildebeest and other herbivores between Serengeti and Maasai Mara game reserve of Kenya. The great migration is among the Seven Wonders of the World. The animal’s move over 800 kilometers the animals moves to follow the rain, they are so many hence they cannot depend on pasture from a single place hence their movement is necessary. During the great movement there are about 2 million wildebeest that leads the way, followed by 400,000 zebras, 1800 eland and 200,000 Thompson’s gazelles. The timing of this movement is rarely the same annually in terms of timing as well as directions. The timing of this migrations depends on the rain seasons patterns.
June – august
The best time for the great migrations is between this these month , this is normally the beginning of the dry season in Serengeti national park hence the animals starts to move towards the north west parts of the national park. In august is the perfect time to see the movements towards the Mara River as the herds of animal’s plunges into the crocodiles as they cross towards the Maasai Mara game reserve in Kenya.
September and October
These are not the best times for watching the great migration as most of the animals have crossed already hence you will have a sight of few animals as the finish crossing towards Kenya, still you might catch a few herds of animals crossing the Mara river.
November and December
This is normally the short rain season hence it’s a good time to enjoy seeing the great movement. This time the herds of animals are starting to move towards the northern part of Serengeti national park and in December they move further towards the southern part of the Serengeti , History of the great Serengeti national park.
January to March
This not a perfect moment for the migration but instead is the best breeding time of the year as the animals are giving out the young once, its normally the best time to watch the calves and the young one’s grow. This is normally the rain season in Tanzania hence there is little movements because the animals have enough pastures to graze on. Annually there are about 8000 wildebeest are born each day hence they have a large population. This is a perfect season to visit the Serengeti national park as you watch the newly born calves play around and wobble in the grasses. The animal viewing in this season is also easier because the where about of animals is predictable.
April, May and early June
At first this movement is normally slow because the calves are still young hence the migrations towards the western part of Serengeti is normally slower. In May the movements speed up because calves have grown up hence they can move with the higher speed too. At this times of the year the rain season is normally at its peak ,History of the great Serengeti national park .
The cycle of the movement of animals is always that way and normally repeats itself annually.
The birds in Serengeti national park
The Serengeti national park has more than 500 different bird species which makes it a perfect destination for the bird watching activities. The birds varies from the tiny beautiful sunbirds to the massive ostrich with pinkish legs and dramatic mating dance. There are some bird species that are only found in Serengeti national park and not elsewhere in the world, these birds includes the grey throated spur fowl, Schalows wheatear, red throated tit, rufous tailed weaver, grey creasted helmet shrinker and Schalows turaco. The most extra ordinary bird found here is the lilac breasted roller often seen in the trees alongside the road.
