Serengeti National Park
The Serengeti is Africa’s most famous game reserve, and probably its finest. Gazetted in 1951, this legendary park forms the 14,763 sq km centrepiece of a cross-border ecosystem that stages the world’s greatest annual animal migration, consisting of some two million bleating wildebeest, together with a supporting cast of zebra, gazelle, eland, hartebeest, and predatorial hangers-on such as hyena, vulture, lion and jackal. And even when the migration is quiet, the Serengeti offers arguably the most scintillating game-viewing in Africa: great herds of buffalo, smaller groups of elephant and giraffe, and thousands upon thousands of eland, topi, kongoni, impala and Grant’s gazelle.
For many, it is the Serengeti’s soul stirring sense of space that endures in the memory: the horizonless oceans of grassland alluded to in the Maasai name Serengit (‘endless plain’), cropped and yellow in the dry season, tall and green after the rains. And while the very popularity of the Serengeti means that the central plains around the Seronera headquarters can occasionally be a little overpopulated with 4x4s, the northern and western two-thirds of the vast park remain surprisingly untrammelled – indeed, there are still parts of the Serengeti where a game drive might yield more lion sightings than other tourists!
Vegetation and habitats
- The classic Serengeti landscape of flat, treeless short-grass plains studded with isolated koppies (granite inselbergs) is mostly confined to the southern third of the park.
- The lush western corridor supports tracts of well wooded savannah flanking the ribbon of lush riparian woodland that follows the Grumeti River
- The remote and little visited far north is hilly and densely wooded, giving way to rolling green grassland reminiscent of the Maasai Mara along the border with Kenya.
Wildlife
- The annual migration of up to three million wildebeest, zebra and gazelle across this vast ecosystem has been described – justifiably – as the world’s greatest wildlife spectacle.
- Other plains wildlife includes eland, hartebeest and ostrich, while typical koppie inhabitants include the colourful agama lizard, scurrying rock hyrax, and dainty klipspringer.
- The large herds of grazers support a unique density of predators – blond-maned lions laze nonchalantly in the shade, cheetahs pace the open plains, hyenas lope around their den entrances, leopards laze in the trees that line the Seronera River, and a plethora of smaller predators includes the streamlined serval, dainty bat-eared fox, and a trio of jaunty jackal species.
- Giraffe, though uncommon on the open plains, are plentiful in the western Corridor, where the Grumeti River is known for its outsized crocs and numerous hippos, and the fringing woodland harbours ‘western’ forest species such as black-and-white colobus and Ross’s turaco.
- The northern Serengeti is the main haunt of the park’s thousand-strong elephant population and is the only placed in Tanzania where you find the rust-coloured, spindly-limbed patas monkey.
- The park’s only rhino population is resident (but seldom observed) in the southerly Moru Koppies.
- The park’s 550 bird species range from the outsized ostrich and bizarre secretary bird of the open grassland, to the black eagles that soar effortlessly above the Lobo Hills, and half a dozen localised endemics, notably the brightly coloured Fischer’s lovebird and grey-throated spurfowl.
Activities
- The main activity is game drives, which are more-or-less restricted to daylight hours, but are never the same twice.
- Balloon safaris, which leave daily from the Seronera headquarters, offer a thrilling vulture’s eye view of the plains and wildlife. Advance booking is advisable.
Getting there
- The park can be visited at any time. Dec-July is when the wildebeest are present in the accessible south-central plains – calving usually takes place in Jan and the crossing of the Grumeti River in June/July.
- The closest town is Mwanza on the Lake Victoria shore, but few safaris start there. More normal to visit the Serengeti as part of a 4-6 day 4x4 safari out of Arusha, also taking in Ngorongoro and Manyara. A longer period is required to explore the north and west.
- Scheduled flights connect the Serengeti to Arusha and the other parks of the northern circuit.
Where to stay
- Around 20 lodges and tented camps are scattered around the park. The larger lodges are mostly clustered around the south-central plains, while the smaller and more exclusive camps lie in the northern hills and the western corridor.
- Public campsites are concentrated at the Seronera headquarters, but numerous private ‘special campsites’ are dotted around the park.
Nearby places of interest
- Lake Victoria, the world’s second-largest lake, can easily be visited as a day outing from the Serengeti’s Western Corridor.
Checklist of conspicuous and noteworthy mammals: lion, leopard, cheetah, serval, spotted hyena, striped hyena, golden jackal, black-backed jackal, side-striped jackal, bat-eared fox, banded mongoose, white-tailed mongoose, common genet, blue wildebeest, Coke’s hartebeest, topi, Defassa waterbuck, common reedbuck, impala, Thomson’s gazelle, Grant’s gazelle, eland, bushbuck, common duiker, Kirk’s dik-dik, steenbok, klipspringer, African elephant, African buffalo, black rhinoceros, common zebra, hippo, warthog, Maasai giraffe, olive baboon, vervet monkey, blue monkey, patas monkey, black-and-white colobus, rock hyrax.