Serengeti National Park

About Serengeti

The Serengeti is Tanzania's oldest and most famous national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981. Its name comes from the Maasai word "siringet", meaning "the place where the land runs on forever", and it fits: roughly 14,750 km² of open grassland, acacia woodland, river forest and rocky kopjes stretching north to the Kenyan border.

The park is home to the Great Migration, when well over a million wildebeest, together with hundreds of thousands of zebra and gazelle, follow the rains in a never-ending circle through the ecosystem. Calving season blankets the southern plains with newborns from January to March. By June the herds funnel through the western corridor and the Grumeti River, and from July to October they reach the northern Serengeti, where thousands of animals plunge across the crocodile-filled Mara River.

Away from the migration, the Serengeti holds one of the highest densities of predators in Africa. Lion prides, leopards resting in sausage trees along the Seronera River, cheetahs surveying the plains from termite mounds, and hyena clans make the central Seronera valley a year-round highlight. The kopjes at Moru and Gol shelter rock hyraxes, klipspringers and some of the park's few black rhino.

Serengeti safaris are best planned around the herds. We position your camps where the action is for your travel dates, mixing the busy central valley with quieter corners of the park, and finish each day with a sundowner on the plains.

Wildlife you may see

• Wildebeest and zebra (the Great Migration)
• Lion
• Leopard
• Cheetah
• Spotted hyena
• Elephant
• Giraffe
• Buffalo
• Hippo and crocodile (Mara and Grumeti rivers)
• Black rhino (rare, Moru kopjes)
• Over 500 bird species

Highlights

• Great Migration herds and Mara River crossings (typically July to October)
• Calving season on the southern plains (typically January to March)
• Lion, leopard and cheetah around Seronera all year
• Granite kopjes, hippo pools and sunrise hot-air balloon flights over the plains