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Serengeti National Park Tanzania – Attractions, Best time to Visit, Location and Accommodations
Popular for being the home to the Great annual migration, there is something about Serengeti National Park that makes it magical and worth exploring during African safaris.
The possibility of experiencing whatever you dreamt about Africa is higher in this Tanzanian Protected Area than any other place. Surprisingly, innumerable wildlife films and documentaries have been shot/recorded in Serengeti National Park and it’s all for a good reason.
This is one of the places where visitors can witness millions of migrating wildebeests alongside gazelles and zebras over the vast acacia plains. Not only that, the Park is the cradleland of human life and undoubtedly the closest to unblemished African wilderness you can ever get.
Visitors to this Protected Area agree that it is where time stands still regardless of millions of wildlife continuously on the move.
The incredibly large Serengeti National Park extends for over 1,476,300 hectares within the northern part of Tanzania. It is found within the Eastern Mara region as well as the north-eastern side of Simiyu region with virgin savannah.
On the name of the Protected Area, it was named “Serengeti” from Masai word “Siringet” to mean an “area where the land runs on forever”, owing to its sweeping savannah plains. Before becoming a National Park, the area first became a Game Reserve in 1930 within the south and East Serengeti with about 228,600 hectares.
In this particular year, the Government (then Tanganyika) came up with a system of National Parks that are acquiescent with the “Convention relative to the Preservation of Fauna and Flora within their original state” The “National Park” status was gained in 1940 and this meant eviction of Masai pastoralists that occupied areas within the demarcated Area. The boundaries of the Park were completed by 1951 and it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.
Serengeti National Park is a remarkable wildlife hotspot with most of Africa’s wilderness animals. More than 2000 lions live in Serengeti National Park while travellers can also see African bush elephants, Black rhinoceros, Cape buffaloes, cheetahs and primates (yellow baboons, black and white colobus monkeys, vervet monkeys, olive baboons and patas monkeys among others).
Other animals include, East African wild dogs, Caracals, African striped weasels, African golden wolves, Ground pangolin, serval cats, Mongoose of varying species, crested porcupine, striped and spotted hyenas, Defassa waterbucks, wildebeests, side-stripped and black-backed jackals, common elands, Aardwolves, bat-eared foxes, African wild cats, African civets, Honey badger, Otters, Aardvarks, Masai giraffes, common genets, warthogs, Cape hares and many others.
For reptile lovers, expect to see puff adders, leopard tortoises, Black mambas, Serrated hinged terrapin, different chameleon species, the black-necked spitting cobras, Monitor lizards, Nile crocodiles, Rainbow agama and African rock pythons among others.
Bird Species
Serengeti National Park is haven to over 500 species of birds that include Marabou storks, secretary birds, Martial eagles, Goliath herons, Cattle egrets, Hadada ibis, sacred ibis, pink-backed pelicans, Kori bustards, Saddle-billed storks, spotted thick-knees, African fish eagles, Crowned cranes, Egyptian geese, southern ground hornbills, spur-winged geese, lesser flamingos, African collared doves, white storks, Oxpeckers, helmeted guineafowls, and the Tanzanian red-billed hornbills among others.
The wildebeest Migration
The wildebeest migration is another outstanding attraction within Serengeti National Park and involves millions of wildebeests, zebras and gazelles northwards towards Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.
Antelopes such as impalas, common elands and Topis also join the migration and white it is a spectacle worth seeing; these animals move annually to search for fresh pastures and clean water.