Serengeti National Park

Exploring the Ngorongoro Crater

Nestled deep in the heart of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania’s legendary Serengeti lays the Ngorongoro Crater–a large, unbroken caldera that formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself a few million years ago.

Today, the 2,000-foot-deep, 1,000-square-mile Ngorongoro Crater boasts a richness and diversity of wildlife that lives up to its big bang start. Home to an estimated 25,000 animals, the crater boasts not only the Big Five (rhinos, lions, leopards, elephants, and buffalo) but zebras, gazelles, wildebeests, and more.

And yet the crater, because of its geographic enclosure, is also home to interesting genetic experiments. Some animals–most notably lions–face serious problems as the result of generations of inbreeding, and when migrating male lions try to dip into the local gene pool they are easily bested by the unusually large lions that have benefited from generations of abundant food.

Archaeologists estimate that hominids have also occupied the crater since its inception a few million years ago, with pastoral farmers replacing hunter-gatherers a few thousand years ago. The Maasai have roamed the crater since the 1800s, and still do, in a situation unique in Tanzania that allows for the human occupation of a protected conservation area. Since 1979, the conservation area has also been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

For those who come to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, we at Embark are compelled to at least offer an extended stay post-climb to safari through the region, with the Ngorongoro Crater being the ultimate highlight. In the summertime, the area is witness to one of the largest migrations in the world as millions of wildebeest, 470,000 gazelles, and 260,000 zebra pass through the plains of the reserve, to name just a few. It should be noted that cheetahs, which are common in the reserve, have grown scarce within the crater itself, and that the African wild dog has all but disappeared from the crater and throughout the country, too.

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On safari in the Serengeti National Park

At Embark we’re not shy about picking favorites–that’s how we decide where to go and what to do in the world–and climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro sits high at the top of our list. But while in Tanzania, we consider foregoing a safari through the Serengeti truly lamentable. You just have to try to make the time for this unforgettable post-climb event.

The Serengeti National Park is Tanzania’s first and most famous park and a major portion of the entire Serengeti region, which makes up 14 percent of Tanzania’s land area and comprises not only the park but also the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Maswa Game Reserve, the Loliondo, Grumeti and Ikorongo Controlled Areas and the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.

More than six million hooves pound the legendary plains of the Serengeti, which is renowned for its wealth of leopard and lion. The vast reaches of the park also help the black rhino fight extinction and provide a protected breeding ground for the vulnerable cheetah. Every year, triggered by the rains, nearly two million wildebeest, 200,000 zebra, and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelle gather to undertake the long trek to new grazing lands.

At least 2,000 years before Europeans first explored what is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Maasai lived off this fertile, wild land that was eventually established as a protected park in 1951 and covers 5,700 square miles (14,763 square km) of some of the best grassland range in Africa. One of our favorite parts of the safari is spending time with Maasai–an honor few tourists have.

Serengeti’s ecosystem is also known as one of the oldest on earth, whose climate and vegetation have barely changed in the past million years. With plants that range from dry scrub and grasslands to towering baobabs, this park goes from burnt yellows in the hot, dry summers to a rainbow of flowerbeds that streak across green fields during the springtime rains.

You may have heard of the Big Five–lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, and buffalo–and the Serengeti is one of the world’s only parks that boasts them all. Our guides are so passionate about their work they have been known to get a bit emotional if and when they are able to track down and show all five. But these impressive beasts aren’t the only wildlife to get excited about. Cheetahs, gazelles, hyenas, baboons, impalas, giraffes, and wild dogs populate the rugged terrain, not to mention more than 500 species of birds and 100 types of dung beetle, trees so beautiful and strange they’ll distract you from the animals, and a night sky so full of starlight you might not need your head lamp.

Check out our Serengeti Safari itinerary, our audio slideshow with John Leary on his recent trip, and details on the tents and lodges we prefer on what is arguably the greatest safari in the world.

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