Serengeti Park Website & Travel

The name Serengeti is derived from a local Maasai word meaning “endless plains.” The Maasai grazed their cattle in the region for about 200 years. The park is the oldest and most visited national park in Tanzania.

Serengeti National Park covers an area of 14,750 square kilometers and is characterized by savannah grasslands, woodlands, and riverine forests. The park is divided into three regions:

• Northern Serengeti: The northern Serengeti region is the best place to find Maasai giraffes, elephants, and dik-diks. The landscape here is mostly characterized by hills and open woodlands. Serengeti National Park was recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
• Serengeti Plains: This part of the park offers prolific scenic views. There are hardly any trees, but flat savannah plains make it the best area for wildebeest breeding from December to May. Other animals in this section include hyraxes, pythons, topis, hartebeests, zebras, impalas, and more.
• Western Corridor: This region is where the Grumeti River is located, which the wildebeest migration passes from May to July. Riverine forests here attract hippos, crocodiles, patas monkeys, and other primates.

Serengeti National Park sustains the highest concentration of large predators and large numbers of ungulates in the world. The park boundary extends to Lake Victoria, allowing wildlife access to water during the dry season.

Serengeti 4K Video

History of Serengeti

The first European explorer to visit the Serengeti was Austrian Oscar Baumann, who visited in 1892. The second was Stewart Edward White, who explored northern Serengeti in 1913. Stewart returned and camped in Serengeti for three months, during which he and his colleagues shot 50 lions.

Due to increased hunting, the British colonial government made part of the park a reserve covering 3.2 square kilometers in 1921 to protect wildlife. The reserve was upgraded to a national park in 1951.

Bernhard Grzimek and his son Michael produced a book and film titled “Serengeti Shall Not Die”, which made the park even more famous and is recognized as one of the most important early nature conservation documentaries.

The Maasai were evicted from the park and moved to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in 1959 by the British government. Myles Turner, one of the park’s wardens, is credited with bringing rampant poaching under control. He also wrote autobiographies titled “The Memoirs of an African Game Warden” and “My Serengeti Years,” which provide a history of the park.

In 2010, President Jakaya Kikwete proposed upgrading a road through the northern part of the Serengeti, which he said would benefit poor communities. However, conservationists, including the African Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW), argued that it could damage the wildebeest migration.

In 2010, the Tanzanian government was sued by ANAW at the East African Court of Justice, which ruled in 2014 that the plan was unlawful and infringed upon the East African Community Treaty.

The University of Minnesota established a science project known as Snapchat Serengeti, a lion project aimed at classifying over 30 animal species in the Serengeti using camera traps to understand how they cohabit with lions.

Entry Fees

Entry fees to Serengeti National Park are $83 for foreign non-resident adults and $50 for foreign non-resident children.

The Serengeti Annual Migration

This is one of the most impressive natural wonders of the Earth.

The park hosts four globally threatened and endangered animal species.

Serengeti National Park supports a high diversity of wildlife.

Animals of Serengeti

Serengeti National Park is one of the best places in Africa for wildlife viewing, where wildebeest, zebras, and their predators engage in a 1,000-kilometer movement annually in search of water and pasture.

It is home to 1.5 million wildebeest, 300,000 Thomson’s gazelles, 200,000 zebras, 3,000 lions, 1,000 leopards, 5,000 elephants, 53,000 buffalo, 10,000 topis, 31 eastern black rhinos, 3,500 Grant’s gazelles, 225 cheetahs, Coke’s hartebeests, impalas, warthogs, Maasai giraffes, hippos, waterbucks, greater and lesser kudus, fringe-eared oryx, roan antelopes, elands, klipspringers, dik-diks, jackals, spotted hyenas, olive baboons, black-and-white colobus monkeys, vervet monkeys, cape hares, ground pangolins, aardvarks, aardwolves, crested porcupines, crocodiles, black mambas, puff adders, and many more.

Birding

Serengeti National Park is a birder’s paradise, boasting over 500 recorded bird species. Some of these include the silverbird, yellow-throated sandgrouse, rufous-tailed weaver, grey-breasted spurfowl, Fischer’s lovebird, black-headed gonolek, green-backed woodpecker, Verreaux’s eagle, Hildebrandt’s starling, grey-crested helmet-shrike, red-capped robin-chat, Schalow’s turaco, southern ground hornbill, Rüppell’s vulture, and Usambiro barbet, among many others.

Best Time to Visit Serengeti

Serengeti National Park can be visited year-round, but the best time for general wildlife viewing is from late June to October, when the wildebeest migration takes place. Wildlife viewing in Serengeti is excellent in certain areas at specific times, and the wildebeest calving occurs from late January to February. November to May is the best time for birdwatchers to visit the park.

Location: Getting There

Serengeti National Park is located in northwestern Tanzania, bordered by the Maasai Mara Reserve in Kenya to the north. The southwest is bordered by Maswa Game Reserve, to the northeast is the Loliondo Game Controlled Area, Ngorongoro Conservation Area is to the southeast, and Grumeti and Ikorongo Game Reserves are to the west.

Serengeti Accommodation: Where to Stay

Despite its large area, Serengeti National Park offers relatively few accommodation options.

Some of the accommodations in the park include Lake Masek Tented Camp, Ndutu Under Canvas, Sanctuary Kusini, Grumeti Migration Camp, Mbugani Migration Camp, Singita Sasakawa Lodge, Serena Kirawira Tented Camp, Mbalageti Serengeti, Melia Serengeti, Seronera Campsite, Thorntree Camp, Kati Kati Tented Camp, Kenzan Tented Camp, Kiota Tented Camp, Kubu Kubu Tented Camp, Serengeti Pioneers Camp, and Chaka Tented Camp, among others. Accommodation ranges from luxury to budget, depending on tourists’ preferences and budgets.

Consider the season when choosing where to stay, especially during the wildebeest migration.