Guide To Serengeti Great Wildebeest Migration & Best Time To See It In Tanzania
GREAT SERENGETI WILDEBEEST MIGRATION GUIDE & BEST TIME TO SEE IT IN 2021-2022
The Great Wildebeest Migration in the Serengeti is the largest single movement of wild animals in the world, deservedly listed as one of its eight Natural Wonders and an exceptional inspiration for a dream nature tour of northern Tanzania with SafariBando. Around 1.5 million wildebeests, with hundreds of thousands of zebras, elands, gazelles along with a trailing retinue of predators, leave their calving grounds in southern Serengeti, around March and April, heading for the next water source. Trekking via the south-central Seronera outskirts into the Western Corridor and Grumeti River arriving during the month of April to May and residing till June, and then finally towards the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya crossing the perilous Mara River around July or August onwards with a return via the same death-defying river, this time heading to the bearing of Lobo and Loliondo in eastern Serengeti around October to November. The white bearded wildebeest journey continues back to the southern Ndutu calving grounds with arrivals starting around December with temporary residence till March
The dates timing of the migration depends upon the annual rains and renewal of fresh pasture which may seasonally occur earlier or later in some years. But the spectacle is worth the effort to make a photo safari in Tanzania as multitudes of wild gnus pour across the plains, driven by instinct or necessity in such a way that they act as one entity, pursuing their destiny, to rut, mate, dare and die on this impossibly perilous journey, which, nevertheless, ensures the ultimate survival of the wildebeest and the continuance of the Serengeti ecosystem of which they are the mainspring. Their epic journey is one of violence and endurance as they battle onwards, past granite kopjes where cheetah or lion lie in ambush, through flood-swollen and crocodile infested rivers, over parched plains scorched by wildfires, to sanctuary in the north. Then, homing in on distant rains, they circle back again, daring greater hazards by the same water, by exhaustion and by predators, shedding a quarter of their numbers by the wayside. To appreciate the enormity of this phenomenon, you must take part, tracking and observing from 4x4 game-viewing vehicles, filming from the ground or in the air in a hot air balloon to zoom in on the action as if the unending grasslands were your theatre with your own cast of millions acting out their ancient ritual for you alone.
Review Your Preferred Serengeti Great Wildebeest Migration Trail Below
1. North Serengeti
From July, August to September, the Mara River in northern Serengeti affords the most dramatic river crossings. Fierce and deep, cliff-sided and rain-swollen, the river takes an enormous toll of the exhausted and terrified wild cattle that surge through its torrential flow.
2. East Serengeti
Enjoy a Serengeti East Safari during October and November when the mega herds return from Masai Mara in Kenya to the rich plains of the Serengeti National Park, east of the Grumeti River, passing through Lobo and Western Loliondo and under the majestic Gol mountains.
3. South Serengeti
On a Serengeti South Safari, from December to March, you can follow the wildebeest at Kusini, Ndutu and Maswa. On these rich grasslands, the gnus produce 8000 calves a day for a three week era. Predatory leopards, hyenas, cheetahs, jackals and lions eat their fill.
4. West Serengeti
On a Serengeti West Safari around end of April, May and June, a vast army of blue wildebeests along with its herbivore partner, zebras, mill around the Western Corridor, south of the Grumeti River, some harassed behind by lions and ahead by giant Nile crocodiles.
5. Central Serengeti
Your Serengeti Central Safari in the Seronera Valley offers a year-round game-viewing mecca with impressive populations of bovids, terrestrial predators, reptiles, amphibians and birds, which remain even after the spectacular hordes of blue wildebeests and zebras have gone.
