SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK
14673sqKm of endless plains, the Serengeti National Park lies in northwestern Tanzania, straddling the border with Kenya. The Park encompasses half of the 30,000 sq Km Serengeti- Maasai Mara Ecosystem, a range of land defined by the limits of the Wildebeest movements throughout the year. Tanzania's oldest park, with its even more ancient landscape forged by the past volcanic activity of the several volcanoes in the nearby Ngorongoro Highlands; the rich grasses of the plains play host to the most spectacular numbers of wildlife in the world. Almost every African animal species is represented in the Serengeti, birthplace of the millions of plains game that continually circle the ecosystem. Huge granite boulders, known as kopjes, are characteristic of the park and provide sanctuary for birds, colourful Agama lizards and sombre snakes, adorable rock hyraxes, as well as the big cats that seek shelter from the elements.
Although famed for its plains, the Serengeti encompasses woodland, thornbush, swamps and Lakes Lagaja and Magadi, supporting over 30 species of large herbivores and over 500 species of birds, including Eurasian migrants, with its diversity. The Gol and Moru Kopjes, the central Seronera area which is an oasis of springs, pools and surprisingly, palm trees, and the equally mysterious ``Whistling Thorn`` country- the Western Corridor which leads to the Grumeti River, home of Africa's largest crocodiles, are some of the natural obstacles which the wildebeest and zebra encounter and must cross, during their annual migration up north towards the Masai Mara.
