SERENGETI
NATIONAL PARK
A
million wildebeest... each one driven by the same ancient rhythm,
fulfilling its instinctive role in the inescapable cycle of life:
a frenzied three-week bout of territorial conquests and mating;
survival of the fittest as 40km (25 mile) long columns plunge through
crocodile-infested waters on the annual exodus north; replenishing
the species in a brief population explosion that produces more than
8,000 calves daily before the 1,000 km (600 mile) pilgrimage begins
again.
Tanzania's
oldest and most popular national park, the Serengeti is famed
for its annual migration, when some six million hooves pound the
open plains, as more than 200,000 zebra and 300,000 Thomson's
gazelle join the wildebeest’s trek for fresh grazing. Yet
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.The spectacle
of predator versus prey dominates Tanzania’s greatest park.
Golden-maned lion prides feast on the abundance of plain grazers.
Solitary leopards haunt the acacia trees lining the Seronera River,
while a high density of cheetahs prowls the southeastern plains.
Almost uniquely, all three African jackal species occur here,
alongside the spotted hyena and a host of more elusive small predators,
ranging from the insectivorous aardwolf to the beautiful serval
cat.But there
is more to Serengeti than large mammals. Gaudy agama lizards and
rock hyraxes scuffle around the surfaces of the park’s isolated
granite koppies.
A full 100 varieties of dung beetle have been
recorded, as have 500-plus bird species, ranging from the outsized
ostrich and bizarre secretary bird of the open grassland, to the
black eagles that soar effortlessly above the Lobo Hills.As enduring
as the game-viewing is the liberating sense of space that characterises
the Serengeti Plains, stretching across sunburnt savannah to a
shimmering golden horizon at the end of the earth. Yet, after
the rains, this golden expanse of grass is transformed into an
endless green carpet flecked with wildflowers. And there are also
wooded hills and towering termite mounds, rivers lined with fig
trees and acacia woodland stained orange by dust.
Popular the
Serengeti might be, but it remains so vast that you may be the
only human audience when a pride of lions masterminds a siege,
focussed unswervingly on its next meal.
