Serengeti
- This article is about a region in Tanzania. For the scandal, please see Sirengate.
The Serengeti is a 60,000 square kilometer savanna which lies over Tanzania and Kenya.[1] The biannual migration that occurs there is considered one of the seven tourist travel wonders of the world. The region contains several national parks and game reserves. Its name is derived from the Maasai language and means "Endless Plains".
The Serengeti has more than 2 million herbivores and thousands of predators. Blue Wildebeests, gazelles, zebras and buffalos are the animals most commonly found in the region.
The Serengeti hosts the largest and longest overland migration in the world,[2] a biannual occurrence. Around October, nearly 2 million herbivores travel from the northern hills toward the southern plains, crossing the Mara River, in pursuit of the rains. In April, they then return to the north through the west, once again crossing the Mara river. This phenomenon is sometimes called the Circular Migration. Over 250,000 wildebeest alone will die along the journey from Tanzania to Maasai Mara reserves in upper Kenya, a total of 500 miles. Death is often caused by injury, exhaustion, or falling prey to predators such as the big cats of the region.[2]
The migration is chronicled in the 1994 documentary film, Africa: The Serengeti.
The area is also home to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which contains the Olduvai Gorge, where some of the oldest hominid fossils are found, as well as the Ngorongoro Crater, the world's largest unbroken volcanic caldera.
References
- ^ Pearce, Fred (September 2, 1995). "Selling wildlife short: The great game parks of East Africa may have to be given over to wheat unless tourists can be persuaded to pay the right price". New Scientist.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b Partridge, Frank (2006-05-20). "The fast show". The Independent (London). Retrieved 2007-03-14.
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