Discover Serengeti

[Eva Libre]

 

 

 

 

Discover Serengeti

 

 

 

It was 1913 and great stretches of Africa were still unknown to the white man when Stewart Edward White, an American hunter, set out from Nairobi. Pushing south, he recorded: "We walked for miles over burnt out country... Then I saw the green trees of the river, walked two miles more and found myself in paradise."

He had found Serengeti. In the years since White's excursion under "the high noble arc of the cloudless African sky," Serengeti has come to symbolize paradise to many of us. The Maasai, who had grazed their cattle on the vast grassy plains for millennia had always thought so. To them it was Siringitu - "the place where the land moves on forever."

The Serengeti region encompasses the Serengeti National Park itself, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Maswa Game Reserve, the Loliondo, Grumeti and Ikorongo Controlled Areas and the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Over 90,000 tourists visit the Park each year.

Two World Heritage Sites and two Biosphere Reserves have been established within the 30,000 km² region. It's unique ecosystem has inspired writers from Ernest Hemingway to Peter Mattheissen, filmakers like Hugo von Lawick and Alan Root as well as numerous photographers and scientists - many of which have put their works at our disposal to create this website.

The Serengeti ecosystem is one of the oldest on earth. The essential features of climate, vegetation and fauna have barely changed in the past million years. Early man himself made an appearance in Olduvai Gorge about two million years ago. Some patterns of life, death, adaptation and migration are as old as the hills themselves.

 

 

It is the migration for which Serengeti is perhaps most famous. Over a million wildebeest and about 200,000 zebras flow south from the northern hills to the southern plains for the short rains every October and November, and then swirl west and north after the long rains in April, May and June. So strong is the ancient instinct to move that no drought, gorge or crocodile infested river can hold them back.

 

The Wildebeest travel through a variety of parks, reserves and protected areas and through a variety of habitat. Join us to explore the different forms of vegetation and landscapes of the Serengeti ecosystem and meet some of their most fascinating inhabitants.

 

 

 

 

Welcome to the Serengeti

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Magnificent Wildlife

 



 

".. The only living things which look as if they really belonged to it are the Wild Animals. Between the animals and Africa there is an understanding that the human beings have not yet earned .."
Laurens van der Post, Venture to the Interior, 1963

Today, the Serengeti National Park, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and the Maasai Mara Game Reserve across the border in Kenya, protect the greatest and most varied collection of terrestrial wildlife on earth, and one of the last great migratory systems still intact.

The Serengeti is the jewel in the crown of Tanzania's protected areas, which altogether make up some 14% of the country's land area, a conservation record that few other countries can match.



 

 

 

 

 

Endless Plains

 

 

"I do not know of any country which is, in terms of earth, of solid matter, so nearly the equivalent of the sea. There seems to be no end of it"
Laurens van der Post, Venture to the Interior, 1963

The Serengeti Plains fill the southern half of the Serengeti and are one of the reasons why the yearly Migration of Wildebeest takes place. After spending the dry season in the wetter northern woodland of Serengeti, the Wildebeest follow the seasonal rains south and move out onto the Serengeti Plains.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

Kopjes

 

Kopjes are very different from the surrounding grassland or woodland in Serengeti. Kopjes provide, among other things, protection from grass-fires, more water in the ground around them, holes, cracks, and caves for animals, and a vantage point for hunters of all kinds. Hundreds of species of plants grow on kopjes, but not in the surrounding grasslands. There are many animal species that only live on kopjes because of the special plants that grow there and because of the special rocky habitats and hiding places there. These animals range from insects, lizards, and snakes, to mammals such as shrews and mice, up to large specialist mammals, such aslions. Lions regularly hide their cubs on kopjes, as docheetahs.

 

Below the layers of volcanic rock and ash that form the soil of Serengeti is a thick layer of extremely old metamorphic rock. Late in the Precambrian, a giant bubble of liquid granite forced its way up from the liquid layers below the Earth's crust and into the Tanganyika Shield. Today, as the softer metamorphic rocks of the Shield wear away, the uneven top of the granite layer is exposed, forming kopjes. The granite is cracked by the repeated heating and cooling under the African sun, and weathered into interesting shapes by the wind. Most kopjes are round or have round boulders on them due to "spherical weathering".

An interesting mammal exclusive to the kopjes is theRock Hyrax, or Pimbi in Swahili. Hyraxes, which are about the size and shape of a rugby or football, are herbivores that eat grass and herbs around the kopjes. Their piercing call echoes out at night, and their habit of using common toilet sites stains the granite white with built-up uric acid. Hyraxes have the startling habit or leaping out of tall trees and off of rocks and running away on their short legs when they feel threatened. It can be quite surprising to discover that it is suddenly raining fat little Pimbis all around you.

If a person is lucky, they might see the shyklipspringer, a small antelope, with dainty hooves perched high on a kopje in the northern areas of the park. These same high points are used by hunters to survey the ground around them, or just have a nap in the sun. Kopjes are one of the best places to see lions and sometimes cheetahs on the hunt.

 

 

 

Woodlands   Woodland is a general term for a savanna with trees spread out in a matrix of grass. Woodlands are not as dense as forests, so there is still enough grass to light seasonal bush fires. Animals such as buffalo, elephant, topi, giraffe, warthog and impala can often be found in woodland areas. There are three general types of woodland in Serengeti Combretum molle/Terminalia mollis woodlands occur in the north of the park, which is the highest rainfall area. These trees are large and presumably old, and no seedlings or juveniles can be seen of these species. Mixed with this woodland are hilltop thickets of Croton dichogamus/ teclea trichocarpa which are currently declining rapidly. Acacia woodlands occur in the central and western parts of the park at intermediate rainfall. There are 38 recorded species of Acacia in the Acacia Woodlands of Serengeti. Of these, 10 species make up more than half of the woodlands. The most common species is Acacia robusta (A. clavigera) which grows on slopes and hilltops and can be distinguished by its feathery leaves. Commiphora woodland occurs in the east of the park where there is the least rainfall. It is actually a mixture of Acacia and Commiphora species. The Commiphora species are not as resistant to fire as their Acacia friends. The low rainfall and low numbers of people outside the park on the eastern side may produce fewer, cooler seasonal fires, thus allowing the Commiphora species safe refuge.

 



Photo - Gallery

 

  

 

 

Lions

 

Buffalo

  

Maasai

 

Elephants



Crane

 

Lions



Butterfly



Lizard



Savanna



Maasai



Lions



Elephants

 

Ostrich



Eagle



Cheetah



Leopard



Kopjes



Topi

 

Impalas



Rains



Running Zebra



Giraffe



Small Cheetahs



Sunset



Flamingos



Elephants



Rhinos



Wilde Beests



Acacia



Leopard



Stork



Hippo



Giraffe



Crocodile



Wilde Beests



Sunset



Impala



Elephants



Diana



Plains



Leopard



Kopjes

 

Lake

 

Kopjes

 



  

 

Human Footprints



The human history of the Serengeti is largely the history of the African people, from the hunter-gatherers of the distant past who roamed the vast plains, to those today who preserve it as a prime destination for visitors.

Apart from Olduvai Gorge, which is formally part of the Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area but an extension of the Serengeti and part of its ecosystem, the area's history has been virtually ignored.
Tsetse flies in the woodlands, and with them sleeping sickness, ensured that the Serengeti was spared the type of European encroachment, and with it the decimation of the wildlife that other African countries were subjected to.

The Leakeys' famous excavations at Olduvai Gorge show that our forebears lived and hunted in the area for some two million years before the German and then the British colonisers arrived.
Man has always been part of the Serengeti and many people, tribes and remarkable individuals have left their footprints on its endless plains.



 

 

[Lothar Seifert]

Wonderful country, wonderful wildlife, wonderful people. Our earth is very beautiful.

 

[Béatrice LATEUR LACROIX]

I had the priviledge to spend 3 weeks in Kenya and to be with wild animals in national Parks.
Except givnig irth to my son it is the strongest experience in my life.

Mother nature offers so much to us ...
With gratitude,

Love and Peace for all Beings.