Tanzania's National Parks

Serengeti National Park
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The Serengeti is know as the “land of endless plains” to the local people and you can see why even before you enter the park. The park covers 14,763km² of grassland plains and savannah as well as riverine forest and woodlands. The flat, vast space is something you cannot be prepared for, in the savannah, kopjes (small rock formations) and animals are about the only things that break up the huge savannah landscape.

Wildlife
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The Serengeti is probably the best chance to see all Big 5 in one national park. Lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, cheetah and buffalo all reside here. Rhino and leopard are probably the hardest to spot. While the big 5 remain the key attractions to tourists, but the park also hosts giraffe and gazelle as well as a large and varied bird population including vultures, eagles and lilac crested rollers.



The “Great Migration” of zebra and wildebeest is the other main attraction for visitors to the Serengeti. Starting anytime from late July through to September, over one million white bearded wildebeest and 200,000 zebra follow the green grass leaving the dry behind as they move from the southern Serengeti through the Western corridor into the Masai Mara before returning to the Serengeti once more. The timing for migration depends purely on the rainfall; even though you are unlikely to see the TV style version of wildebeest and zebra lined up waiting to cross riverbeds full of crocodiles, if you are there between August and October you should see literally thousands of wildebeest and zebras grazing and moving around the plains.

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, Africa 2007. Click to see more photos.