Legend has it that such a solitary warrior must kill a lion but today this is probably unlikely and the Maasai tend to live in harmony with wildlife. There are annual patterns of rainfall which almost always occur but in some years the timing may be slightly different and in some years the rains have completely failed but this is a rare occurrence.
When the rains stop in May, the plains become dry and parched and the grazing animals migrate to their northern feeding grounds. Kopjes are the granite outcrops dotted around the plains of the Serengeti. They act as both lookout posts for predators, and hiding spots for prey. Sadly, around , wildebeest die each year during the great annual wildebeest migration.
The cause of death is often a result of thirst, exhaustion, hunger or predation. Unsurprisingly, Serengeti National Park is all about seeing and experiencing the park wildlife. The best option is to book a safari trip run by a tour operator. Most start in Arusha, though bare in mind that this is not a holiday for the budget conscious.
Safari tours will often offer an all-inclusive package, including accommodation, park fees, as well as a knowledgeable guide to take you to all the best areas. In terms of attractions — if there ever was the perfect place for a hot air balloon ride — this is it. You can sail above the plains, spot wildlife and take in the enormity of the enchanting landscape. The most common thing to do at Serengeti National Park though, is taking photographs.
Go snap happy and take home the most extraordinary photos you could imagine. Kilimanjaro International Airport is the most convenient airport for accessing the Serengeti National Park.
Once at the airport, there are a number of buses and shuttle services that will take you on a 50km 31mi journey to the town of Arusha; gateway to the Serengeti. Many safari tours start from Arusha and offer airport transfer services. When is the best time to visit Serengeti National Park? That depends entirely on the experience you are hoping for. Visit between January and February for the wildebeest calving, between June and September for general wildlife viewing and from June to July to be in with a chance of seeing wildebeest crossing the Grumeti River.
In terms of weather, March and April is when the area experiences the greatest rainfall. The best weather is between June and October when there is virtually no rain. Staying in the Serengeti National Park for at least one night is an experience not to be missed: to watch the sun go down and the stars come out to the sound of cicadas and hooting birds is a magical experience. Typically, if you have booked onto an organised Safari tour, you will stay in mobile camps, with limited facilities.
Alternatively, you could stay in a Safari Lodge where you will be pampered with luxurious facilities and amenities. There are also a few luxury campsites within the park, along with a number of basic camping grounds. I have never gotten so much information on one place in my life. Your site is brilliant. I am bookmarking it right now! I am trying to plan a trip to Africa and debating on the route I want to go and which places I want to see.
There will by 7 of us. This post was actually helpful. I think this made my list of must see destinations! Twice a year ungulate herds of unrivalled size pour across the immense savanna plains of Serengeti on their annual migrations between grazing grounds. The river of wildebeests, zebras and gazelles, closely followed by predators are a sight from another age: one of the most impressive in the world.
State, in Mara, Arusha and Shinyanga provinces. Administered by the Tanzanian National Parks Authority. It is contiguous in the southeast with Ngorongoro Conservation Area ,ha , in the southwest with Maswa Game Reserve ,ha , in the west with the Ikorongo-Grumeti Game Reserves ,ha , in the north with the Maasai-Mara National Reserve ,ha in Kenya and in the northeast with the Loliondo Game Controlled Area ,ha.
The total area is larger than the island of Taiwan. The immense plains of Serengeti stretch km south from the Kenyan border and km east from almost the shore of Lake Victoria to the edge of the eastern Rift Valley. They are a west-sloping surface of weathered ash from the Ngorongoro volcanoes covering a plateau of mainly crystalline rock, pimpled with low outcrops of granite kopjes. In the northeast and along the western corridor are low lightly wooded mountain ranges of mainly volcanic origin.
In the northwest the Mara river crosses the northwest corner of the Park. In the centre the savanna is crossed by the Grumeti and Mbalageti rivers which are usually flowing, and drain to Lake Victoria. In the south are open grass plains. There are several small lakes, marshes, and seasonal waterholes all over the Park. The mean annual precipitation varies from mm in the northwest and mm in the western corridor to less than mm in the lee of the Ngorongoro Highlands in the east.
It falls mainly between October and May with peaks in November the short rains and from March to April the long rains. The annual drying up in May triggers migration north; the rains, which start in October, trigger the returning migration south. Generally, the climate is warm and dry, coolest from June to October, with a mean annual temperature of Its centre is savanna with scattered acacia; in the south are wide open shortgrass plains; in the west and north are thornwood long grasslands, along the rivers, gallery forest and in the hilly western corridor extensive woods and black clay pans.
Short grass is the major vegetation on the open plains which become almost desert during severe drought and are prone to wildfires, which the short grass can tolerate.
This is the major wet season habitat of the migrating ungulates. Dominant species are couchgrass Digitaria macroblephara , Sporobolus marginatus and S. In wetter areas there are sedges such as Kyllinga nervosa. There is extensive acacia woodland savanna in the centre stretching east from Ikoma and some gallery forest along the rivers.
Lowland woodlands include Commiphora africana , whistling thorn Acacia drepanolobium , A. Upland woodlands are of red thorn Acacia lahai and gum acacia A. The Park is best known as the ecosystem with the greatest concentration of large mammals in the world, both grazers and browsers, and the carnivores which live off them, totalling more than 2.
Many of these migrate between seasonal water sources and grasslands, starting in May and June from the central plains to the western corridor and then northwards across the Mara river into Kenya in July to September, dispersing to the southeast in October and November to calve in midsummer in the south.
The herds are followed by prides of lion Panthera leo VU numbering up to 3, individuals Packer, , spotted hyena Crocuta crocuta , striped hyaena Hyaena hyaena , golden jackal Canis aureus , sidestriped jackal C. The last packs of wild dog Lycaon pictus EN disappeared from the park in There are large herds of antelope of many species. In the woodlands are desert warthog Phacochoerus aethiopicus , bushbuck Tragelaphus scriptus , sitatunga T. In the swamps are reedbuck Redunca redunca and waterbuck Kobus ellipsiprymnus.
Other characteristic larger mammals are leopard Panthera pardus , cheetah Acinonyx jubatus VU , caracal Caracal caracal , savanna elephant Loxodonta africana VU , estimated to number 1, in Said et al. Smaller mammals include numerous species of bats, thick-tailed bushbaby Otolemur crassicaudatus , green monkey Chlorocebus aethiops , patas monkey Erythrocebus patas and eastern black-and—white colobus monkey Colobus guereza caudatus , aardvark Orycteropus afer , ground pangolin Smutsia temminckii , Cape hare Lepus capensis , porcupine Histrix indica , three species of hyrax and many other rodents, bat-eared fox Otocyon megalotis , African clawless and spotted-necked otters Aonyx capensis and Lutra maculicollis , ratel Mellivora capensis , zorilla Ictonyx striatus , seven species of mongoose, aardwolf Proteles cristata , common genet Genetta genetta , large spotted genet Genetta tigrina , African civet Civettictis civetta , serval Leptailurus serval , golden cat Profelis aurata , African wildcat Felis lybica and bushpig Potamochoerus larvatus.
Reptiles include crocodile Crocodylus niloticus , Nile monitor lizard Varanus niloticus, African rock python Python sebae , blacknecked spitting cobra Naja nigricollis and puff adder Bitis arietans.
Over bird species include 34 raptors, 6 vultures and aggregations of over 20, waterbirds. The Park is the largest nearly intact tropical rainforest national park in Africa and the second largest in the world. It is the habitat of a very diverse flora and fauna and many endemic endangered species, such as the bonobo pygmy chimpanzee , for which it was partly founded to protect, the Congo peacock, the forest elephant and the African slender-snouted crocodile.
The Serengeti and Maasai Mara were open grasslands free from tsetse fly Glossina spp. These are the largest group of pastoralists in East Africa, whose cultural code precludes eating wild animals so that their rangeland was used by both livestock and wildlife. This, with the tsetse-conveyed sleeping sickness, preserved the vast herds until invaded first by a rinderpest epidemic from Asia in the s which led to severe losses of wildlife and domestic livestock and caused much of the human population to abandon the area.
The Maasai occupy the eastern frontiers of the Park. Agriculture is the main source of income, but many people are attracted by the wildlife and the opportunities for work in tourism Campbell and Hofer, ; Leader-Williams, In a luxury hotel was proposed within the Park itself. In addition to Kijereshi Tented Camp there are 70 campsites in the Park. Six access routes exist, but access is usually by road from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. There are several airstrips and an airfield at Seronera.
The reopening of the border with Kenya increased visitor numbers from a low of 18, to 40, in Following improvements to the infrastructure, Serengeti between and attracted , visitors: , foreigners and , Tanzanians Njuki, Wildlife watching is also possible from balloons. Serengeti National Park with Ngorongoro is one of the least disturbed and best studied areas in Africa and has been a centre for major research for thirty years. The Park in the s was well publicised by Dr Bernhard Grzimek who made extensive aerial wildlife surveys and an influential film, Serengeti Shall Not Die.
The Serengeti Wildlife Research Institute SWRI has a research centre at Seronera which has well-equipped laboratories, a library, herbarium and accommodation for visiting scientists. Projects during the s included continuing long-term research on ecosystem processes, the behavioural ecology of lion, leopard and ungulates, mongoose population dynamics and reproduction and the ecology of dung beetles and termites. A program on the behaviour and ecology of the African wild dog used radio-collaring techniques to monitor 22 dogs SWRC, A number of externally funded scientists conduct research at the SWRI.
The annual migration of the ungulate herds between their feeding areas extends in a circular movement from the Serengeti via the Grumeti-Ikorongo, Maasai Mara, Amboseli, Loliondo and Ngorongoro Reserves back to the Maswa Serengeti plains following rain-fed pastures, making each an important part of the whole ecosystem.
Major predators include 4, lions, leopards, cheetahs, 3, spotted hyenas and wild dogs. While species are facing the challenges of going extinct, Serengeti National Park is the hope for these species. Biological Diversity Until the present day, the biological diversity of the site remains clearly noticeable, comprising more than four worldwide threatened animal species such as elephant, wild dog cheetah and rhinoceros.
The biological diversity of the park is very high with at least four globally threatened or endangered animal species: black rhinoceros, elephant, wild dog, and cheetah.
Despite the fact that Serengeti is abundant with wildlife, it has vast unspoiled landscapes that are scenic and spectacular and indeed this is one of the reason it was included as a World Heritage site. This exhibit was created by Tanzania National Parks www. Serengeti National Park.
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