Great Migration: Serr Ghet

The Serengeti (/ ˌsɛrənˈɡɛti / SERR-ən-GHET-ee) ecosystem is a geographical region in
Africa. It is located in northern Tanzania. It spans approximately

30,000 km2 (12,000 sq mi).
The Serengeti hosts the second largest terrestrial mammal migration in the world, which
helps secure it as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa,[1] and as one of the ten
natural travel wonders of the world.[2] The Serengeti is also renowned for its large lion
population and is one of the best places to observe prides in their natural environment.
[3] The region contains the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and several game reserves.
Approximately 70 large mammal and 500 bird species are found there. This high diversity
is a function of diverse habitats, including riverine forests, swamps, kopjes, grasslands,
and woodlands.[4] Blue wildebeests, gazelles, zebras, and buffalos are some of the
commonly found large mammals in the region.
There has been controversy about a proposal to build a road through the Serengeti.[5]
Serengeti is derived from the Maasai language, Maa; specifically, "Serengit" meaning
"Endless Plains".[6][dubious – discuss]
History[edit]
Much of the Serengeti was known to outsiders as Maasailand. The Maasai are known as
fierce warriors and live alongside most wild animals with an aversion to eating game and
birds, subsisting exclusively on their cattle. Historically, their strength and reputation kept
the newly arrived Europeans from exploiting the animals and resources of most of their
land. A rinderpest epidemic and drought during the 1890s greatly reduced the numbers of
both Maasai and animal populations. The Tanzanian government later in the 20th century
re-settled the Maasai around the Ngorongoro Crater. Poaching and the absence of fires,
which had been the result of human activity, set the stage for the development of dense
woodlands and thickets over the next 30–50 years. Tsetse fly populations now prevented
any significant human settlement in the area.
By the mid-1970s, wildebeest and the Cape buffalo populations had recovered and were
increasingly cropping the grass, reducing the amount of fuel available for fires. [7] The
reduced intensity of fires has allowed acacia to once again become established. [8]
In the 21st century, mass rabies vaccination programmes for domestic dogs in the
Serengeti have not only indirectly prevented hundreds of human deaths, but also
protected wildlife species such as the endangered African wild dog.[9]
Great migration[edit]
Migrating wildebeest
Wildebeest crossing the river during the Serengeti migration
Each year around the same time, the circular great wildebeest migration 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.[10] This 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.[11][12][13]
During February, the wildebeest spend their time on the short grass plains of the
southeastern part of the ecosystem, grazing and giving birth to approximately 500,000
calves within a 2 to 3-week period. Few calves are born ahead of time 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. As the rains end in May, the animals
start moving northwest into the areas around the Grumeti River, where they typically
remain until late June. The crossings of the Grumeti and Mara rivers beginning in July are a
popular safari attraction because crocodiles are lying in wait. [11] The herds arrive in Kenya
in late July / August, where they stay for the remainder of the dry season, except that
the Thomson's and Grant's gazelles move only east/west. In early November, with the start
of the short rains the migration starts moving south again, to the short grass plains of the
southeast, usually arriving in December in plenty of time for calving in February. [14]
About 250,000 wildebeest die during the journey from Tanzania to the Maasai Mara
National Reserve in southwestern Kenya, a total of 800 kilometres (500 mi). Death is
usually from thirst, hunger, exhaustion, or predation.[2]
Ecology[edit]
Lioness on a kopje, or rock outcropping
Giraffe in Eastern Serengeti
River and the Serengeti plains
The Serengeti has some of East Africa's finest game areas.[15] Besides being known for the
great migration, the Serengeti is also famous for its abundant large predators. The
ecosystem is home to over 3,000 lions (Panthera leo), 1,000 leopards (Panthera pardus),
[16] and 7,700 to 8,700 spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta).[17].The East African cheetah are
also present in Serengeti.
Wild dogs are relatively scarce in much of the Serengeti. This is particularly true in places
such as Serengeti National Park (where they became extinct in 1992), in which lions and
spotted hyenas, predators that steal wild dog kills and are a direct cause of wild dog
mortality, are abundant.[18]
The Serengeti is also home to a diversity of grazers, including African
buffalo, warthogs, Grant's gazelle, eland, waterbuck, and topi. The Serengeti can support
this remarkable variety of grazers only because each species, even those that are closely
related, has a different diet. For example, wildebeests prefer to consume shorter grasses,
while zebras prefer taller ones. Similarly, dik-diks eat the lowest leaves of a
tree, impalas eat the leaves that are higher up, and giraffes eat leaves that are even
higher.
The governments of Tanzania and Kenya maintain a number of protected areas, including
national parks, conservation areas, and game reserves, that give legal protection to over
80 percent of the Serengeti.[4]
The southeastern area lies in the rain shadow of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area's
highlands and is composed of shortgrass treeless plains with abundant small dicots. Soils
are high in nutrients, overlying a shallow calcareous hardpan due
to natrocarbonatite eruptions from Ol Doinyo Lengai.[19] A gradient of soil depth
northwestward across the plains results in changes in the herbaceous community and
taller grass. About 70 kilometres (43 mi) west, acacia woodlands appear suddenly and
stretch west to Lake Victoria and north to the Loita Plains, north of the Maasai Mara
National Reserve. The sixteen acacia species vary over this range, their distribution
determined by edaphic conditions. Near Lake Victoria, floodplains have developed from
ancient lakebeds.
In the far northwest, acacia woodlands are replaced by broadleaved Terminalia-Combretum
woodlands, caused by a change in geology. This area has the highest rainfall in the system
and forms a refuge for the migrating ungulates at the end of the dry season. [20][21]
Altitudes in the Serengeti range from 920 to 1,850 metres (3,020 to 6,070 ft) with mean
temperatures varying from 15 to 25 °C (59 to 77 °F). Although the climate is usually warm
and dry, rainfall occurs in two rainy seasons: March to May, and a shorter season in
October and November. Rainfall amounts vary from a low of 508 millimetres (20 in) in the
lee of the Ngorongoro highlands to a high of 1,200 millimetres (47 in) on the shores of
Lake Victoria.[22] The highlands, which are considerably cooler than the plains and are
covered by montane forest, mark the eastern border of the basin in which the Serengeti
lies.
The Serengeti plain is punctuated by granite and gneiss outcroppings known as kopjes.
These outcroppings are the result of volcanic activity. Kopjes provide a microhabitat for
non-plains wildlife. One kopje likely to be seen by visitors to the Serengeti is the Simba
Kopje (Lion Kopje).
The area is also home to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which contains Ngorongoro
Crater and the Olduvai Gorge, where some of the oldest hominin fossils have been found.

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The Serengeti (/ ˌsɛrənˈɡɛti / SERR-ən-GHET-ee) ecosystem is a geographical region in

Africa. It is located in northern Tanzania. It spans approximately

Wildebeest crossing the river during the Serengeti migration

Lioness on a kopje, or rock outcropping

Giraffe in Eastern Serengeti

River and the Serengeti plains

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