In Protected Area Status was conferred to the area and the National Park itself was established in , then covering southern Serengeti and the Ngorongoro highlands.
They based the park headquarters on the rim of Ngorongoro crater. In , the Ngorongoro Conservation Area was split off from the Serengeti National Park and they extended the boundaries of the park to the Kenya border. The key reason for splitting off the Ngorongoro area was that local Maasai residents realized that they were threatened with eviction and consequently not allow to graze their cattle within the national park boundaries.
To counter this from happening, protests were staged. A compromise was reached wherein the Ngorongoro Crater Area was split off from the national park: the Maasai may live and graze their cattle in the Ngorongoro Crater area but not within Serengeti National Park boundaries.
In the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya was established and in the Lamai Wedge between the Mara River and Kenya border was added to Serengeti National Park, thus creating a permanent corridor allowing the wildebeests to migrate from the Serengeti plains in the south to the Loita Plains in the north. The Maswa Game Reserve was established in and a small area north of The Grumeti River in the western corridor was added in It was formally established in Home Back About Serengeti.
The Serengeti National Park is located in the center and covers around 15, square kilometers 5, square miles. When the drought arrives around April and May, the wildebeest leave Ndutu to begin a clockwise migration around the plains following the rains and the lush grasses they help sprout.
The patterns have been repeating for at least a million years, according to the fossil record. By June or July, they arrive in the northern Serengeti plains, where they encounter arguably the hardest parts of their journey: the crocodile-infested Grumeti and Mara Rivers.
The Grumeti lies adjacent to the Serengeti National Park, whereas the Mara is the only river that flows perennially through the park. The Mara River is also the major obstacle separating the wildebeest from the short, sweet grasses in Maasai Mara in Kenya.
Many tourists visit from July to October for the chance to see thousands of wildebeest cross the river. The photograph above shows wildebeest crossing a river in Maasai Mara in August The crossing is dangerous not only because crocodiles are waiting in the waters, but because of the drowning risk.
In , approximately 15, wildebeest drowned while crossing the Mara River due to high water levels from heavy rainfall. By November of each year, the rainy season begins again in the southern Serengeti and the wildebeest return to Ndutu. The principle eruption in the formation of the plains was apparently Kerimasi, although this is hard to believe when you see it — a modest looking dormant volcano just south east of Lengai near Lake Natron.
It erupted in what was clearly a major way , years ago. Subsequently Ol Donyo Lengai has kept things topped up in recent years, erupting 15 times since the end of the 19th Century, most recently at the end of The prevailing wind direction in the Serengeti is from the east, so what you see when you look at the pattern of the plains is what amounts to an enormous vomit of ash which has blown down wind from the source of eruption.
Wildebeests bear their young in February and March, which sparks predators. Then, in May as the plains of the south and east dry out the mass moves on to the north and west crossing the Grumeti River, where there is more grass and more a more reliable water supply.
Some , wildebeest die during the journey from Tanzania to Maasai Mara Reserve in lower Kenya, a total of miles km , according to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature. Death is usually from thirst, hunger, exhaustion, or predation. And some wildebeest drown. An average of 6, wildebeest die every year crossing the Mara River in eastern Africa during this annual migration.
And scientists have found their deaths weren't for naught. Reporting online June 19, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , researchers looked at 13 mass drownings that occurred between and , finding that the thousands of corpses are the equivalent of more than 1, tons of biomass that can feed the Serengeti.
Animals that benefit include scavengers like vultures and crocodiles, as well as maggots and even fish and algae that benefit from the nutrients released from the wildebeests' bones. To peer into the secret lives of this diverse array of animals that call the Serengeti home, Alexandra Swanson began placing motion-triggered cameras, or camera traps, around the Serengeti in as part of her doctoral dissertation at the University of Minnesota.
With the help of citizen scientists, Swanson and other researchers identified the species in any images showing animals. She described the resulting 1.
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