We have a lot of wonderful places in this world,
where you will get a touch of a different feeling.
The Serengeti is one of these wonderful places.
In today's episode, we will learn about The Serengeti, the natural habitat of thousands
of animals.
The Serengeti ecosystem is a geographical region in Africa, spanning northern Tanzania.
The protected area within the region includes approximately 30,000 sq km of land, including
the Serengeti National Park and several game reserves.
The Serengeti hosts the second largest terrestrial mammal migration in the world, which helps
secure it as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa, and as one of the ten natural travel
wonders of the world.
The Serengeti is also renowned for its large lion population and is one of the best places
to observe pride in its natural environment.
About 70 large mammals and 500 bird species are found in this area.
This high diversity is a function of diverse habitats, including riverine forests, swamps,
kopjes, grasslands, and woodlands.
Blue wildebeest, gazelles, zebras, and buffalos are some of the commonly found large mammals
in the region.
The Serengeti is a geographical region in Africa, spanning northern Tanzania.
It also contains the Serengeti District of Tanzania.
There has been controversy about a proposal to build a road through the Serengeti.
It was sparsely inhabited as species of African wildlife have roamed freely across the vast
rolling plains.
However, this had all changed when nomadic pastoralists of the Maasai began to migrate
to the area in the early 20th century.
They were hurt by drought and disease.
Thousands died in the 1880s from a cholera epidemic and in 1892 from smallpox.
The Tanzanian government later in the 20th century re-settled the Maasai around the Ngorongoro
Crater.
Poaching and the absence of fires, allowed dense woodlands and thickets to develop over
the next 30–50 years.
Tsetse fly populations now prevented any significant human settlement in the area.
In the 21st century, mass rabies vaccination programs for domestic dogs in the Serengeti
have not only indirectly prevented hundreds of human deaths, but also protected wildlife
species such as the endangered African wild dog.
Each year around the same time, the circular great wildebeest migration begins in the Ngorongoro
Conservation Area of the southern Serengeti in Tanzania and loops clockwise through the
Serengeti National Park and north towards the Masai Mara reserve in Kenya.
This migration is naturally caused, by the availability of grazing.
The initial phase lasts from about January to March when the calving season begins.
It is a time when there is plenty of rain-ripened grass available for the 260,000 zebras that
precede 1.7 million wildebeest and the following hundreds of thousands of other plains game,
including around 470,000 gazelles.
During February, the wildebeest are on the short grass plains of the southeast part of
the ecosystem, grazing and giving birth to about 500,000 calves in 2 to 3 weeks.
Few calves are born ahead of time and of these, hardly any survive, largely because very young
calves are more noticeable to predators when mixed with older calves from the previous
year.
As the rains end in May, the animals start moving northwest into the areas around the
Grumeti River, where they typically remain until late June.
The crossings of the Grumeti and Mara rivers beginning in July are a popular safari attraction
because crocodiles are lying in wait.
The herds arrive in Kenya in late July or August, where they stay for the rest of the
dry season.
In early November, with the start of the short rains, the migration starts moving south again,
to the short grass plains of the southeast, usually arriving in December in plenty of
time for calving in February.
The Serengeti has some of East Africa's finest game areas.
Besides being known for the great migration, the Serengeti is also famous for its abundant
large predators.
The ecosystem is home to over 3,000 Lions, 1,000 African leopards, and 7,700 to 8,700
spotted hyenas.
The East African cheetahs are also present in Serengeti.
African wild dogs are relatively scarce in much of the Serengeti.
This is particularly true in places such as Serengeti National Park, in which lions and
spotted hyenas, predators that steal wild dog kills and are a direct cause of wild dog
mortality, are abundant.
The Serengeti is also home to a diversity of grazers.
The Serengeti can support much remarkable variety of grazers only because each species,
even those closely related, has a different diet.
Altitudes in the Serengeti range from 920 to 1,850 meters with mean temperatures varying
from 15 to 25 °C. Although the climate is usually warm and dry, rainfall occurs in two
rainy seasons: March to May, and a shorter season in October and November.
Rainfall amounts vary from a low of 508 millimeters in the lee of the Ngorongoro highlands to
a high of 1,200 millimeters on the shores of Lake Victoria.
Now, it is also a tourist place, and people visit this place from the world over the world.
It is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa and is one of the ten natural travel
wonders of the world.