Why do people love Serengeti? Welcome to Serengeti National Park, the cradle of human life, the only site you can see millions of migratory wildebeest across the Acacia plains, and most likely the closest you will ever go to an unspoiled African wilderness. Where, in spite of the thousands of creatures that are always moving, time appears to stand still.
The magic of Serengeti National Park
It’s difficult to put Serengeti National Park’s magic into words. You will try to explain to friends and relatives not just what you see, but also the sound of millions of wildebeest buzzing so densely in the air that it vibrates through your entire body, only to realise it’s not possible. It’s worth the journey to see the breathtaking views of honey-lit plains at dusk. The sincere smiles of the Maasai people, which instantly make you feel warm on the inside. Or simply the sensation of being surrounded by thousands of animals all the time; the Serengeti National Park is spectacular year-round, regardless of when you visit during the migration.
Serengeti National Park as a World Heritage Site
When United Nations delegates gathered in Stockholm in 1981, one of the first locations to be recognised as a World Heritage Site was Serengeti National Park. This region was already acknowledged in the late 1950s as having a distinct ecosystem, which has given us a great deal of insight into the workings of the natural world and demonstrated the true dynamic nature of ecosystems. Today, the main reason most people come here is to see the millions of wildebeest, zebras, gazelles, and elands as they travel in large groups in search of fresh grass and water to drink. These ungulates travel through the ecosystem according to a seasonal rhythm determined by grass nutrients and rainfall throughout this massive cyclical movement. There is nowhere else in the world where one can see such massive herds of animals moving. The Serengeti is unfenced and protected, unlike other well-known animal parks that are fenced. Allowing animals the room they need to complete their return trip, something they have been doing for millions of years. Go further into the Great Migration.
Great Migration
It’s important to look past this enormous spectacle, even if the migration is one of the biggest draws for many tourists to the Serengeti National Park. To begin with, nature is uncontrollable. It’s important to have reasonable expectations for your chances of seeing a river crossing or a big herd in motion. For instance, a thirty-minute river crossing can be missed in the blink of an eye. There are many other reasons to visit the Serengeti, so don’t let this deter you. If not the enormous expanse of territory where you might drive for eternity and never tyre of it, perhaps it’s the breathtakingly colourful skies or the raw thrill you get as a deep, grey rainstorm approaches from the far distance.
Alternatively, you may heed the call of the lions and visit the Serengeti to witness one of the world’s greatest concentrations of predators: the herds sustain over 7,500 hyenas, 3,000 lions, and 250 cheetahs. And the grey giants, who go silent? Over the plains and into the woodlands, elephants in the Serengeti amble and eat leaves and tree branches.
The Serengeti plains are still ruled by animals, although humans have lived here for a very long time. For about 4 million years, not only humans but also our ancestors, the Australopithecus afarensi, lived in this region. Many native groups still call Serengeti National Park home today. The Maasai tribe is among the most well-known; their culture has been preserved for a very long time, making them special and well-liked. The Maasai people are a symbol of Tanzanian and Kenyan culture because they have maintained their traditional way of life in the face of education, civilization, and cultural influences from the west. Study up on the Maasai people.
You will quickly come to understand that in this internationally recognised Tanzanian National Park, surprise knows no bounds. The Serengeti is a region of transition, drawing a diverse range of flora and fauna due to its noticeable shifts from rich, level soils to low, mountainous soils in the north. The Serengeti National Park has everything one could want to find, whether it’s huge lions, birds, or even tiny animals. Understanding and being a part of even a small portion of this ecosystem will alter your perspective on the environment and our world. You will be permanently altered after being struck by this area of transition’s brightness, diversity, and immensity.
History of Serengeti National Park
Explorers and missionaries wrote about the vast array of animals that could be found in the Serengeti plains in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Before investigations in the late 1920s and early 1930s provided the first references to the big wildebeest migrations and the first images of the area, only a few minor facts had been published. In what are today the southern and eastern Serengeti, a 2,286 square km game reserve was created in 1930. Up until 1937, they permitted sport hunting; after that, all hunting was prohibited. The region received Protected Area Status in 1940, and the Ngorongoro highlands and southern Serengeti became part of the newly formed National Park in 1951.The Ngorongoro Crater rim served as the inspiration for the park’s headquarters.
Thus, when the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) was gazetted in 1951, it was also a part of the original Serengeti National Park. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area separated from the Serengeti National Park in 1959, and the park’s limits were expanded to include the Kenyan border. The main cause for the Ngorongoro area’s separation was the realisation by the Maasai people living there that they faced eviction threats and were thus forbidden from allowing their cattle to graze inside the national park boundaries. Protests were organised to stop this from happening. The Ngorongoro Crater Area was divided from the national park as a result of a compromise; Maasai people are allowed to reside and graze their livestock there, but not inside the borders of Serengeti National Park.
The Lamai Wedge, which runs between the Mara River and Kenya’s border, was added to Serengeti National Park in 1965, establishing a permanent corridor that permits wildebeests to travel from the Serengeti plains in the south to the Loita Plains in the north. The Masai Mara National Reserve was established in 1961 in Kenya. A tiny portion of the western corridor, north of the Grumeti River, was added to the Maswa Game Reserve in 1967 after it was first created in 1962. During the Stockholm meeting in 1972, the Serengeti National Park was one of the first Tanzania safari destinations to be suggested by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. In 1981, it was formally founded.
