The Serengeti-Maasai Mara ecosystem is
generally defined as the traversing area of one and a half million migrating
wildebeest. The Serengeti is widely considered to be the planet's greatest and
most spectacular functioning ecosystem. Reasons for this include its sheer size
of 20,000 square miles.
There are no fences and the range of the park
stretches way past the borders, into Kenya's Maasai Mara, the Ngorongoro
Conservation Area, the Maswa Game Reserve in the south west, the Grumeti and
Ikorongo Controlled Areas in the west and the Western Corridor, stretching
almost to the shores of Lake Victoria.
The Serengeti contains more than three million
large mammals, including more than 35 different species of plains game.
Marching in seemingly endless columns, cantering through the dust and cavorting
in green pastures, the annual movement across the Serengeti of wildebeest and
other grazing ungulates is probably the greatest spectacle in the animal
kingdom.
The name 'Serengeti' comes from the Maasai
language and appropriately means an 'extended place'. The National Park, with
an area of 7,500 square miles is a huge expanse of land, but its ecosystem,
which includes the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the Maswa Game Reserve and the
Maasai Mara Game reserve (in Kenya), is a vast area. It lies between the shores
of Lake Victoria in the west, Lake Eyasi in the south, and the Great Rift
Valley to the east. As such, it offers the most complex and least disturbed
ecosystem on earth.
A unique combination of diverse habitats enables
it to support more than 30 species of large herbivores and nearly 500 species
of birds. Its landscape, originally formed by volcanic activity, has been
sculptured by the concerted action of wind, rain and sun. It now varies from
open grass plains in the south, savannah with scattered acacia trees in the
centre, hilly, wooded grassland in the north, to extensive woodland and black
clay plains to the west. Small rivers, lakes and swamps are scattered
throughout. In the south-east rise the great volcanic massifs and craters of
the Ngorongoro Highlands. Each area has its own particular atmosphere and
wildlife.
The Serengeti's climate is usually warm and dry.
The main rainy season is from March to May, with short rains falling from
October to November. The amount of rainfall increases from about 20 inches on
the plains in the lee of the Ngorongoro Highlands to about 47 inches on the
shores of Lake Victoria. All is lush and green after the rains, but a gradual
drying up follows which restricts plant growth and encourages the animals to
migrate in search of permanent waters. With altitudes ranging from 3,000 to
6,069 feet - higher than most of Europe - mean temperatures vary from 59 to 77
degrees Fahrenheit. It is coolest from June to October, particularly in the
evenings.
For centuries, the vast wilderness of the
Serengeti Plains remained virtually uninhabited but about hundred years ago the
nomadic Maasai came down from the north with their cattle. The first European
to set foot in the area was the German explorer and naturalist Dr. Oscar
Baumann, who passed by as an agent of the German Anti-Slavery Committee on his
way to Burundi. He was followed by his compatriots who built Fort Ikoma in the
north which was used as an administrative centre until it fell to the British
in 1917.
The first professional hunters came in 1913. They
found the wildlife plentiful, especially the lions, but saw no elephants. Seven
years later, an American arrived in a strange new contraption known as a Ford
motor-car and news of the wonders of the Serengeti had reached the outside
world. Because the hunting of lions made them so scarce (they were considered
'vermin'), it was decided to make a partial Game Reserve in the area in 1921
and a full one in 1929. With the growing awareness of the need for
conservation, it was expanded and upgraded to a National Park in 1951. Eight
years later the Ngorongoro Conservation Area was established in the south-east
as a separate unit.
Travelers are not the only ones who now flock to
see the animals and birds of the Serengeti. It has become an important centre
of scientific research. In the late fifties, Dr. Bernhard Grizmek and his late
son Michael did a pioneering work in aerial surveys of wildlife. It resulted in
the best-selling classic Serengeti Shall Not Die and a number of films which
made the Park a household name.
The Serengeti Research Institute, founded in 1962
at Seronera, has continued their work, providing not only valuable information
for the management and conservation of game parks but also original research in
ecology and ethology. More is now known about dynamics of the Serengeti than
any other ecosystem in the world.
Most visitors enter the Park from the south-east,
dropping down from the escarpment of the Ngorongoro Highlands onto the open
short grass plains. The road passes by the Olduvai Gorge, where Dr. and Mrs.
Leakey found the 1.75 million-year-old remains of Australopithecus boisei
('Zinjanthropus') and Homo habilis which suggest that our species first evolved
in this area. To the west, the Gorge reaches Lake Ndutu where a safari lodge is
attractively set amongst trees by the water's edge.
In the open grass plains during the rainy months
from November to May hundreds of thousands of wildebeest and Burchell's zebra
congregate. The area is the starting point for one of the great wonders of the
world: the Serengeti annual migration. Towards the end of May when the grass
becomes dry and exhausted, the wildebeest start to mass in huge armies. All is
far from peaceful, for it is the rutting season and each male tries to
establish a stamping ground. Eventually, after several dummy runs, the animals
begin their trek in a column several miles long to the permanent waters in the
north of the Park. After moving westwards, the migration divides by some
uncanny instinct, one group turning north-east and the other due north. Once
started, little stops the stampede: hundreds often drown at a time in the broad
Mara river in the north.
Although outnumbered eight to one, the zebra join
in the migration, maintaining their family units of about a dozen members, each
with a dominant stallion. Their yelping bark combines with the bleating of the
wildebeest to give the typical sound of the migration. Lion, cheetah, hyena and
hunting dog follow the wildebeest and zebra, making sure that only the fittest
survive. In November, when the grazing is finished in the North, this army of
animals surges back to the now green pastures of the south, where they calve
and mate before starting the entire cycle again. Normally, the best time to see
the animals here is during January and February.
Heading north into the Park, the grass becomes
noticeably longer, and it is usual to see Grant's and Thomson's gazelles, as
well as the occasional small groups of topi and kongoni. Ostriches and
secretary birds stalk the grass, while a family of warthog often scurry away.
Out of the vast sea of grass also rise great granite outcrops, known as
'kopjes', which have their own range of vegetation and wildlife.
Towards Seronera, the Park headquarters, the
landscape becomes more varied. Hills rise out of plains criss-crossed by small
rivers. Umbrella acacia trees appear, elegant and serene, contrasting with the
twisted commiphora trees. Then at Seronera a beautiful lodge is built on a
kopje, a sculpture of wood and stone set in a tranquil garden. Nearby camping
sites offer an opportunity to share the experience of the early explorers.
Cheeky hyraxes and lizards play on the rocks and
a profusion of birds - superb starlings, lilac-breasted rollers, barbets and
ring-necked doves to name but a few - fill the air with their songs. But all
around is some of the wildest bush in Africa. Giraffes nibble the tender leaves
of the thorny acacias, buffalo lumber along, and all manner of game - Thomson's
and Grant's gazelles, impala, topi and kongoni - graze nervously. At night the
soaring cough of the leopard and the whooping laugh of the hyena interrupt the
incessant ticking of the cicadas. And then there are famous black-maned lions
of Seronera. No longer hunted like vermin, a pride of up to twenty can often be
seen in a tawny heap.
From Seronera, the road to the west runs parallel
to the Grumeti river, crossing extensive cotton soil plains. The riverine wood
along its banks supports many black and white colobus monkeys while
exceptionally large crocodiles take to its waters. In open clearings and on
hills, a herd of roan antelope or Patterson's eland sometimes appear.
To the north, the landscape gradually becomes
more hilly and wooded. Damaged trees show that this is becoming elephant
country, while buffalo, zebra, giraffe and gazelles abound. Another beautiful
lodge built on a kopje takes its name from nearby Lobo hill, which
appropriately means in Maasai the 'place belonging to one man'. With
magnificent views over rolling plains, it must be one of the most haunting and
remote places on earth.
