TheSerengeti National Park is a largenational park in northernTanzania that stretches over 14,763 km2 (5,700 sq mi).[1] It is located in easternMara Region and northeasternSimiyu Region and contains over 1.5 million ha (3.7 million acres) of virginsavanna. The park was established in 1940.
TheSerengeti is well known for the largest annual animal migration in the world of over 1.5 millionblue wildebeest and 250,000 zebra along with smaller herds ofThomson's gazelle andeland.[2] The national park is also home to the largestlion population in Africa. It is under threat fromdeforestation, population growth,poaching, andranching.
The name "Serengeti" is often attributed to aMaasai wordsiringet, meaning "the place where the land runs on forever"[3] or "endless plains".[4] However, this word does not appear in dictionaries of the language.[5]
In 1930, majorRichard Hingdston, visiting Tanganyika on a mission from the Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the Empire (SPFE), proposed that the Serengeti Game Reserve be designated as a national park to ensure its protection from the pressures of population growth and economic development.[7]
The area became a national park in 1940. It was granted strict protection in 1948 when the Serengeti National Park Board of Trustees was formed to administer the national park. The government restricted the movements of the resident Maasai people, and the park boundaries were finalized in 1951.[8] In 1959, an area of 8,300 km2 (3,200 sq mi) was split off in the eastern part of the national park and re-established asNgorongoro Conservation Area intended to accommodate the traditional land use interests of the Maasai people in a multiple land use area.[9]
In 1966 Serengeti Research Institute at Seronera was established to monitor and research the Great Migration.[10]
In 1981, the Serengeti National Park covered 12,950 km2 (5,000 sq mi), which was less than half of theSerengeti.[11]
Serengeti National Park forms a Lion Conservation Unit since 2005 together withMaasai Mara National Reserve.[13]More than 3,000 lions live in this ecosystem.[14] In 1994, an outbreak of canine distemper led to the deaths of approximately one-third of the lion population in the area.[15]
The population density of theAfrican leopard is estimated at 5.41 individuals per 100 km2 (14.0 per 100 sq miles) in the dry season.[16]
African bush elephant herds recovered from a population low in the 1980s caused bypoaching, and numbered over 5,000 individuals by 2014.[17] TheAfrican buffalo population declined between 1976 and 1996 due to poaching, but increased to 28,524 individuals by 2008.[18] TheEastern black rhinoceros population was reduced to about 10 individuals in the 1980s due to poaching, and fewer than 70 individuals survive in the park today.[19] Rhinos mostly browse on grasses, woodyIndigofera,Acacia andCrotalariaforbs and shrubs.[20]
The great migration is the world's second longest overland migration. The complete migration route is around 800 km (500 mi). South of this migration route covers theNgorongoro Conservation Area where around half a millionwildebeest are born between January and March. By March, at the beginning of the dry season, roughly 1.5 million wildebeest and 250,000zebras start to migrate north towardsMaasai Mara in Kenya.Common eland,plains zebra, andThomson's gazelle join the wildebeest. In April and May, the migrating herds pass through the Western Corridor. To get to the Maasai Mara, the herds have to cross the Grumeti and Mara Rivers, where around 3,000 crocodiles lie in wait. For every wildebeest captured by the crocodiles, 50 drown. When the dry season ends in late October, the migrating herds start to head back south. Around 250,000 wildebeests and 30,000 plains zebras die annually from drowning, predation, exhaustion, thirst, or disease.[26]
The park covers 14,750 km2 (5,700 sq mi)[31] of grassland plains,savanna,riverine forest, and woodlands. The park lies in northwestern Tanzania, bordered to the north by the Kenyan border, where it is continuous with the Maasai Mara National Reserve. To the southeast of the park is the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, to the southwest lies Maswa Game Reserve, to the west are theIkorongo andGrumeti Game Reserves, and to the northeast and east lies the Loliondo Game Control Area.
The landscape of theSerengeti Plain is extremely varied, ranging from savannah to hilly woodlands to open grasslands. The region's geographic diversity is due to the extreme weather conditions that plague the area, particularly the potent combination of heat and wind. The diverse habitats in the region may have originated from a series of volcanoes, whose activity shaped the basic geographic features of the plain by adding mountains and craters to the landscape.[citation needed]
The Mara River, which flows throughMaasai Mara National Reserve from the Kenyan highlands to Lake Victoria, is the only permanently-flowing river in the Serengeti ecosystem.[32]
The park is divided into three regions:
Serengeti plains: The best-known feature of the Serengeti is the almost treeless grassland in the south. It has koppies, granite formations that serve as observation posts for predators. The Volcanic Grasslands is anedaphic plant community that grows on soils derived from volcanic ash from nearby volcanoes.[33]
Western corridor: The main geographic feature is the pair of rivers, Grumeti and Mbalageti. There are big groups ofriverine forest and some small mountain ranges. The great migration passes through the corridor from May to July. It stretches to Lake Victoria. The area is flatter than the northern parts of the park and more densely covered with plants than the southern plains.[citation needed]
Northern Serengeti: the landscape is dominated by open woodlands, predominantlyCommiphora and hills, ranging fromSeronera in the south to the Mara River on the Kenyan border. It is remote and relatively inaccessible.[citation needed]
The administrative body for all parks in Tanzania is the Tanzania National Parks Authority.Myles Turner was one of the park's first game wardens and is credited with bringing its rampant poaching under control.[36]
Deforestation in theMau Forest region has changed the hydrology of the Mara River.[37] There areinvasive species of plants such asSiam weed,Prickly pear,Feverfew andMexican sunflower.[38] A study in 1996 estimated that the human population of the western side of the park is growing by four percent yearly.[25] Livestock use is also growing which increased the amount of land turned over to farming and ranching. A study by theWorld Conservation Monitoring Centre in 2001 estimated that roughly 200,000 animals are killed by poaching every year.[25]
Between 2005 and 2012 the government considered building a 452-km highway through the park, a proposal revived in 2024.[39] The idea sparked significant controversy. Advocates argued that the road would improve connectivity and alleviate poverty in northern Tanzania, while conservationists warn of severe ecological impacts, including disruption of the wildebeest migration and potential ecosystem collapse. Alternatives, such as southern routes bypassing the park, have been proposed as less harmful options that could benefit more people while preserving the park's integrity.[40]
^Shetler (2007).Imagining Serengeti: A History of L. New African Histories Ser. Jean Allman, Allen F. Isaacman (1st ed.). Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. p. 357.ISBN978-0-8214-1750-8.
^Ofcansky, Thomas P.; Yeager, Rodger (1997).Historical dictionary of Tanzania. African historical dictionaries (2nd ed.). Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. p. 200.ISBN978-0-8108-3244-2.
^IUCN Cat Specialist Group (2006).Conservation Strategy for the LionPanthera leo in Eastern and Southern Africa. Pretoria, South Africa: IUCN.
^Mésochina, P.; Mbangwa, O.; Chardonnet, P.; Mosha, R.; Mtui, B.; Drouet, N. & Kissui, B. (2010). Conservation status of the lion (Panthera leo Linnaeus, 1758) in Tanzania (Report). Paris: SCI Foundation, MNRT-WD, TAWISA & IGF Foundation.
^abKennedy, A. S.; Kennedy, V. (2014).Animals of the Serengeti, and Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Princeton, New Jersey.ISBN978-1-4008-5138-6.OCLC873760148.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Scoon, R. (2018).Geology of National Parks of Central/ Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania: Geotourism of the Gregory Rift Valley, Active Volcanism and Regional Plateaus. Springer. pp. 69–79.ISBN9783319737843.
^Kindt, R., Lillesø, J.-P. B., van Breugel, P., Bingham, M., Sebsebe Demissew, Dudley, C., Friis, I., Gachathi, F., Kalema, J., Mbago, F., Minani, V., Moshi, H. N., Mulumba, J., Namaganda, M., Ndangalasi, H.J., Ruffo, C.K., Jamnadass, R. and Graudal, L. 2011.Potential natural vegetation of eastern Africa. Volume 5: Description and tree species composition for other potential natural vegetation types. Forest & Landscape Working Paper 65-2011
^World Database on Protected Areas (2021)."Serengeti National Park". Protected Planet, United Nations Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Retrieved24 May 2021.
^Hopcraft, J. Grant C.; Mduma, Simon A. R.; Borner, Markus; Bigurube, Gerald; Kijazi, Alain; Haydon, Daniel T.; Wakilema, William; Rentsch, Dennis; Sinclair, A.R.E.; Dobson, Andrew; Lembeli, James Daudi (2015)."Conservation and economic benefits of a road around the Serengeti".Conservation Biology.29 (3):932–936.ISSN0888-8892.
