Serengeti Plain

From New World Encyclopedia
File:Serengeti intro.jpg
The Serengeti Plain.

The Serengeti is a 60,000 square kilometer savanna which lies over Tanzania.[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".


Overview

Maasai woman of the Serengeti Plain, 2006.

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 predation.[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.

The area was used as location inspiration for the animated Disney film The Lion King and subsequent theatrical production.

Serengeti National Park

Serengeti National Park*
UNESCO World Heritage Site

Serengeti National Park Entrance Sign
State Party Flag of Tanzania.svg United Republic of Tanzania
Type Natural
Criteria vii, x
Reference 156
Region** Africa
Inscription history
Inscription 1981  (5th Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List.
** Region as classified by UNESCO.

The Serengeti National Park is a large national park in Serengeti area, Tanzania. It is most famous for its annual migration of over one million white bearded (or brindled) wildebeest and 200,000 zebra.

History

The Maasai people had been grazing their livestock in the open plains which they knew as “endless plain” for over 200 years when the first white man, Stewart Edward White recorded coming across it in 1913. The name Serengeti is an approximation of the word used by the Maasai to describe the area.

The area was declared as a ‘protected area’ in 1921 by the then German colonial administration. The national park was established in 1951 by the English administration and it then became famous after the initial work of Bernhard Grzimek and his son Michael in the 1950’s. Together they produced the book and film Serengeti Shall Not Die, widely recognized as one of the most important early pieces of nature conservation documentary.

As part of the gazetting of the park and in order to preserve wildlife from human interruption the area’s residents were moved to the Ngorongoro highlands. There is still considerable controversy surrounding this move, with claims made of coercion and deceit on the part of the colonial authorities.

The Serengeti is Tanzania's first national park and remains the flagship of the country’s tourism industry, providing a major draw to the “Northern Safari Circuit”, encompassing Lake Manyara, Tarangire and Arusha national parks, as well as Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Geography and Wildlife

File:Knuckles, Serengeti.jpg
Western corridor of the Serengeti.

The park covers 14,763km² of grassland plains and savanna as well as riverine forest and woodlands. The park lies in the north of the country, bordered to the north by the national Tanzania and Kenyan border, where it is contiguous with the Masai Mara National Reserve. To the south-east of the park is Ngorongoro Conservation Area, to the south-west lies Maswa Game Reserve, and to the western borders are Ikorongo and Grumeti Game Reserves, finally to the north-east lies Loliondo Game Control Area.

Human habitation is forbidden in the National Park with the exception of staff for TANAPA, researchers and staff of Frankfurt Zoological Society, and staff of the various lodges and hotels. The main settlement is Seronera which houses the majority of research staff and the park’s main headquarters, including its primary airstrip.

As well as the migration of ungulates, the park is well known for its healthy stock of other resident wildlife, particularly the "Big Five", named for the five most prized trophies taken by hunters, lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros and buffalo. These species remain the key attractions to tourists, but the park also supports many further species including cheetah, gazelle and giraffe as well as a large and varied bird population.

Administration and Protection

As a result of the biodiversity and ecological significance of the area, the park has been listed by UNESCO as one of the World Heritage Sites The administrative body for all parks in Tanzania is Tanzania National Parks or TANAPA.

Myles Turner was one of the Park's first game wardens and is credited with establishing anti-poaching defenses. His autobiography, "My Serengeti Years," provides a detailed history of Serengeti National Park's early years.


Photo gallery


File:Serengeti Giraffes Panorama.jpg
Panorama view of Giraffes in the Serengeti

Notes

  1. 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.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Partridge, Frank, "The fast show", The Independent (London), 2006-05-20. Retrieved 2007-03-14.


Sources and further reading

  • My Serengeti Years – Myles Turner
  • Maasailand Ecology: Pastoralist Development and Wildlife Conservation in Ngorongoro, Tanzania - K.W. Homewood and W.A. Rodgers 24th October 1991, CUP
  • National Geographic Magazine

External links


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