Serengeti is one of the most popular national parks in Africa and it is best known for the annual wildebeest migration that attracts thousands of tourists from different corners of the world who come to enjoy a Safari in Tanzania thus the reason it is considered that world’s greatest wildlife show. It is a very huge park and therefore hosts a huge population of animals that includes over 2 million wildebeests, half million zebras, there thousands of Thomson gazelles, impalas, grants gazelles, topis, hartebeests as well as elands. It also has the highest population of carnivorous animals like the leopards, the cheetahs and the lions the check on the population of the herbivores.

Serengeti is divided into the western corridor, the central seronera valley, the southern plains and the northern part that extends into the Masai Mara national park and the wildebeests use that part of the park during their migration into the Masai Mara and the tourist often enter through the Naabi Hill gate in the Southeast part of the park as that side has short grass plains that stretch right into the north of the Ngorongoro Conservation area.

The Serengeti wildebeests migration is one of the most amazing attraction and its timing is predicted by the rainfall because for them to survive they need to follow the rain that brings about the food and the water to drink. In the dry season animals are a bit scarce here because of the lack of water and most of the animals you will see will be the gazelles since they are not water dependent so they stick around throughout the year. However, when the rain arrives around January to April, you will definitely see lots of zebras, wildebeest and gazelles wildlife in the area because there will be a lot of food/grass and plenty of water around and therefore that is the best time to visit the area if you want to see plenty of animals.

Serengeti Game Drives

During the game drives, you can stretch from Naabi to Seronera located in the central Serengeti. In this valley is a network of rivers that can sustain a huge wildlife population and so this means that this area provides great game sightings is almost guaranteed all year. In this area, you will see more hartebeest, topis and ostriches among so many others. Also, there are many big commercial lodges, majority of them are located there for example the Seronera wildlife lodge where you can also book a hot-air balloon safaris. Air balloon safaris requires that you spend a night in one of the lodges or camps in central Serengeti so that you can have an early 5am wake-up call and later descend to a delicious champagne breakfast.

Serengeti Hot-Air Balloon Safaris

The air balloon provides you with the chance to see lots of animals, see how big the park is and will notice that the granite crops of the Simba Kopje area has more elephants and Masai giraffes. You will see more elephants, waterbucks, bohor reedbucks; you will search for leopards in the branches of the sausage trees along the Seronera River because although they are nocturnal animals, the leopards in this area are not too difficult to spot. While people are hoping to see the lions in other places, chances of seeing them here are very good as they usually spend their days laying about in the shade. There are also lots of hippos in the Seronera and Orangi Rivers so these form the Retina Hippo Pool and so this pool is probably the best place in the Serengeti to view them. The bonus here is the fact that visitors are allowed to step out of their vehicles to watch the 200 plus hippos on foot from the riverbank which is about 10-feet above the pool.

Exploring Northern Serengeti

The northern part of the park is far from the main entry gate in the south and so receives fewer visitors even during the migration passes here between about August to October. However if you are interested in seeing buffaloes and elephants in large numbers the northern part of Serengeti at lobo is a good place to look because the trees in this area provide the elephants with food in the dry season.

Exploring the Western Serengeti Corridor

From May, huge herds start move and head from the Serengeti Plains to the Western Corridor where river Grumeti and the Mbalageti, run almost parallel to each other and they so they both support a band of evergreen forest. The Western Corridor is less busy than the central plains though but has a pretty good permanent population of animals. In June and July when the Grumeti River crossing of the wildebeests occurs, the place is lively as they fight to stay alive during the crossing of this crocodile filled waters. During this time, there will be lots of wildebeest and zebras in the Serengeti national park as well as predators.

Besides those popular animals, you can also expect to see forest specialist like colobus monkeys and there is also a good bird-life therefore those that love birds will enjoy the trip to one of the most amazing game parks there is.

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