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The Serengeti Migration
Even discounting the migration the Serengeti is superb. But the migration puts the park in a league of its own. It is, quite simply, the greatest wildlife show on Earth. Two million animals at times, mostly wildebeest and zebras, moving around an ecosystem 25,000 sq. km. in area, almost as big as the state of Massachusetts. But a lot wilder.
At its most spectacular the Serengeti migration is one of the few experiences that really justify the word “awesome”, but to see it you have to know where and when to go, and it isn’t as predictable as some people might think, though over a period it does follow a fairly regular pattern. We will assume on this web-site that we are talking of a typical year – but just remember that wildebeests and zebras don’t use the Internet...
There is no beginning or end to the migration but we’ll imagine it all starts with the onset of the “rainy season” (don’t be put off by this expression as the “green season”, as it is now often called, is a lovely time of year and usually nowhere near as wet or dismal as it sounds). The rains tend to begin around mid-November, when the big herds start to file into the south-eastern short-grass plains, around Naabi Hill, Lake Ndutu, the Gol Kopjes, Oldupai Gorge and all other parts of the short-grass plains.
Between late January and mid-March the wildebeest calving season takes place. At its peak about 80% of the pregnant females give birth within three weeks, collectively producing something like 8,000 babies each day. The large predators, of course, are on hand to take advantage of this glut.
Between mid-May and the month’s end, as the plains dry out, the whole menagerie, as if at the wave of a magic wand, streams off in columns which are sometimes 40 km. long, heading via the Moru Kopjes for the Western Corridor. On the way, the wildebeest rut takes place, for a period of about three weeks, from around mid-June to early July. Dr. Richard Estes, the greatest authority on the Serengeti wildebeest, has described the event as “unbelievably spectacular”. It is certainly chaotic, as something like 250,000 males strive to mate with as many of the 750,000-or-so females as they can.
Between June and August the migrating animals drink from and eventually cross the Grumeti River, but for many it will be their last drink or their last river crossing. For here in the Grumeti are crocodiles that grow to over five metres in length and weigh more than three-quarters of a tonne. They have jaws so thickset and powerful that they can crush a wildebeest's head like a melon, then tear the body into bloody rags. Usually after yanking the victim into the water.
The great majority of wildebeest survive, to cross the Ikoma Controlled Area outside the park then pass through the Serengeti’s Northern Extension, crossing the next challenging river, the Mara, in July or August. Most but not all of the wildebeest and zebras also cross the Kenyan border a little way beyond, to remain in the Maasai Mara Reserve until about mid-October, when they begin the return journey. This takes them down the eastern boundary of the Northern Extension, in and out of the park, and eventually back to the short-grass plains. The 1000 km. trek – for those which make it - is complete.
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