Serengeti National Park

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

The Serengeti National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been named one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa. It has the largest concentration of predators in Africa including a healthy population of big cats: lions, leopards, and cheetahs. Blue wildebeests, gazelles, zebras, and buffalos inhabit the region, along with lions and spotted hyenas familiar to fans of the Disney film “The Lion King”. The early nature conservation documentary was recorded in Serengeti by Bernhard Grzimek and his son Michael in the 1950s. Together they produced the book and film “Serengeti Shall Not Die”.

The landscape is dotted with several granite and gneiss outcroppings known as kopjes, which are large rocky formations that are the result of volcanic activity. The Simba Kopje (Lion Kopje) is a popular tourist stop. The Serengeti National Park is vast and divided into four regions:

1. The Western Corridor: This area is home to the Grumeti River which is featured often in television documentaries on the Great Wildebeest Migration. The area is home to various other animals such as cheetahs, lions, leopards, monkeys, hippopotamuses, and the majestic martial eagles.
2. The Northern Serengeti of Kogatende and Lamai, on the banks of the Mara River, are further off the beaten path and are good for catching the famed river crossings during summer months. This region is covered in beautiful open woodlands and is probably the best place in the national park to find elephants and giraffes. It is one of the best areas to find the dik-dik, which is one of the smallest antelope in Africa.
3. The Southern Serengeti lies in the shadow of the Ngorongoro highlands. This area is where the Wildebeest calves from December until March. A predator-prey interaction can be regularly witnessed in this area.
4. The Central Serengeti: The Central Serengeti is the most popular region, offering beautiful landscapes and excellent wildlife sightings. The main attraction of the Central Serengeti is undoubtedly the beautiful Seronera Valley. This is a good area for year-round big cats and grazing herbivores.

 Serengeti eco-system is one of the oldest on earth which is all connected with free-roaming animals which leads to greater biodiversity. The entire ecosystem spans 30,000 km² from north Tanzania extending to south-western Kenya. Around 14,750 km² of that is made up of the Serengeti National Park. This ecosystem encompasses the world-famous Maasai Mara National Reserve to the North, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the southeast, the Ikorongo and Grumeti Game Reserves – private reserves in the Serengeti that offer the same wildlife experience but without the crowds, and the Maswa Game Reserve to the southwest, and the Loliondo Game Control Area to the northeast.