The Great Migration
Wildebeest and Zebra Migration - Serengeti / Masai Mara
Migration Routing Map
Important Note: This interactive map shows only an approximation of the migratory herd's pattern and location during a specific month. The animals migrating (the majority of which are wildebeests) do not follow a calendar schedule, rather, they follow cues from the environment to tell them when the rains have reached an area and they then move there to take advantage of the fresh growth of grasses. The migration timing and pattern varies year to year, but this map shows the general pattern with minor, sometimes major, deviations.
The Great Migration
The annual movement of wildebeest and other grazing herbivores across the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem is one of the greatest spectacles in the natural world. Originating on Tanzania’s short grass plains of the southeastern Serengeti, the dwindling of the available grass is the impetus for this primal trek. The horizon fills with 1.5 million wildebeest, 200,000 zebra, 18,000 eland and 500,000 Thompson’s gazelle, relentlessly tracked by Africa’s great predators.
In essence, the wildebeest are taking advantage of the strongly seasonal conditions, spending the wet season on the southeastern plains of Tanzania, and the dry season in the woodlands of northwestern Kenya. The wildebeest give birth between January and March on the short grass plains. The migration is rarely ever the same in terms of precise timing and direction, as local conditions influence grass growth. The wildebeest may therefore move off the open plains earlier in some years and remain in the northern woodlands for longer in others.
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For
a map of Safari Camps in the Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro
Conservation Area, click Serengeti
/ Ngorongoro
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For
a map of Safari Camps in the Masai Mara Game Reserve, click Masai
Mara Camps
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information about the National Parks of Tanzania, click Tanzania
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information about the National Parks of Kenya, click Kenya
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