Serengeti National Park

The world famous Serengeti National Park is the first and the largest Park in Tanzania. It is occupying about 14.763 km².

Origin of the name

The parks name Serengeti means »endless plains« and is derived from the Maasai word Siringiti.

Location

The Park lies in high platens between the Ngorongoro highlands and Tanzania/ Kenya border, and extends almost to lake Victoria. Serengeti National Park is located 335 Km (about 208 miles) from Arusha, Stretching north to Kenya and bordering lake Victoria to the west. From Arusha it is 6 hours drive, or 1 hour and 30 minutes charter flights.

Time to visit

The best way is to follow the wildebeest migration from December to July in the south of the park and for predators from June to October to the west (western corridor) and to the north.

Flora

Various types of vegetation grassy plains, savanna with acacias wooded hills and mountains are the backdrop for an extraordinary concentration of animals found nowhere else in the world.

Fauna

About 35 species of plains animals can be seen here including the so-called big five. Almost 1.5 million wildebeest undertake a circuit of 1000 km. They are searching for new pastures and watering–holes. Same happens with 200,000 zebras and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelles. The brief population explosion of wildebeest produces over 8,000 calves a day before the migrations starts. As in all ecosystems the vegetation and types of animals you find are closely correlated. The park is famous for over 500 varieties of bird to 100 types of dung beetle.