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Serengeti

Coordinates: 2°19′51″S 34°50′0″E / 2.33083°S 34.83333°E / -2.33083; 34.83333
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==Great migration==

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 clockwise through the Serengeti National Park and north towards the Masai Mara reserve in Kenya.[1] This migration is naturally caused, by the availability of grazing. The initial phase lasts from about January to March, when the calving season begins – a time when there is plenty of rain-ripened grass available for the 260,000 zebras that precede 1.7 million wildebeest and the following hundreds of thousands of other plains game, including around 470,000 gazelles.[2][3][4]

During February, the wildebeest are on the short grass plains of the southeast part of the ecosystem, grazing and giving birth to approximately 500,000 Zebra | publisher=About.com | author=AnoukZijlma | access-date=3 June 2014 | archive-date=28 March 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170328053651/http://goafrica.about.com/od/africasafariguide/a/annualmigration.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref> The herds arrive in Kenya in late July / August, where they stay for the rest 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.[5]

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, including by big cats.[6]

Ecology

River and the Serengeti plains.

The Serengeti has some of East Africa's finest game areas.[7] 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, 1,000 African leopards,[8] and 7,700 to 8,700 spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta).[9] The East African cheetah are also present in Serengeti.[10]

African 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.Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).[11]

Lioness on a kopje, or rock outcropping.

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.[12]

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.[13]

In media

  • In 1993, soft rock artist Dan Fogelberg recorded a song titled "Serengeti Moon" for his studio album River of Souls. It is an African-themed love song about a couple making love underneath the Serengeti moon.
  • Canadian guitarist Sonny Greenwich recorded a song titled "Serengeti" on his 1994 album Hymn to the Earth with vocals by Ernie Nelson.
  • Serengeti, a six-episode BBC series, chronicles the life of some of the animals in the Serengeti.[14]
  • The 1982 song "Africa" by the American rock band Toto, originally released on their album Toto IV, includes a reference to the Serengeti.[15] The song inaccurately describes Mount Kilimanjaro as "ris(ing) like Olympus above the Serengeti"; Kilimanjaro is actually located hundreds of miles to the east of the Serengeti.

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Great Wildebeest Migration: Exploring Africa's biggest wildlife phenomenon". 2017. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference aboutAfrica was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "How to Get There, Ngorongoro Crater". Ngorongoro Crater Tanzania. 2013. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  4. ^ "Ngorongoro Conservation Area". United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  5. ^ Croze, Harvey; Mari, Carlo; Estes, Richard D. (2000). Serengeti's Great Migration. Abbeville Press. ISBN 978-0-789-20669-5.
  6. ^ Partridge, Frank (20 May 2006). "The fast show". The Independent (London). Archived from the original on 19 December 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2007.
  7. ^ Pavitt, Nigel (2001), Africa's Great Rift Valley, Harry N. Abrams, p. 122, ISBN 978-0-8109-0602-0
  8. ^ "Cheetahs on the Edge - Pictures, More From National Geographic Magazine". ngm.nationalgeographic.com. Archived from the original on 28 October 2012. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  9. ^ "Mpala Live! Field Guide: Spotted Hyena | MpalaLive". mpalalive.org. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  10. ^ "Cheetahs in Tanzania". Expert Africa. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  11. ^ Sinclair, A. R. E.; Mduma, S. A.; Hopcraft, J. G.; Fryxell, J. M.; Hilborn, R.; Thirgood, S. (2007), "Long-Term Ecosystem Dynamics in the Serengeti: Lessons for Conservation" (PDF), Conservation Biology, 21 (3): 580–590, doi:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2007.00699.x, PMID 17531037, S2CID 41391403, archived from the original (PDF) on 22 November 2010
  12. ^ "The Serengeti National Park". Glcom.com. Retrieved 23 October 2010.
  13. ^ Leslea J. Hlusko; Whitney B. Reiner; Jackson K. Njau (June 8, 2015). "A one-million-year-old hominid distal ulna from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 158 (1): 36–42. doi:10.1002/ajpa.22765. PMID 26058378.
  14. ^ Nicholson, Rebecca (4 July 2019). "Serengeti review – the Made in Chelsea of nature documentary". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  15. ^ Toto – Africa, retrieved 2023-11-11
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