Serengeti

Serengeti

Attraction Introduction Located west of the East African Rift Valley, about 130 kilometers northwest of Arusha, a narrow strip extends 8 kilometers westward into Lake Victoria and reaches the Kenyan border in the north. It became a protected area after 1940; in 1929, a 228,600-hectare area in the central Serengeti was designated as a hunting reserve; in 1951, it was established as a national park; and expanded in 1959. It gained international recognition as part of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme’s Serengeti–Ngorongoro Biosphere Reserve (together with the adjacent Maswa Game Reserve), and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in the same year. Serengeti National Park (1,476,300 hectares) is part of the larger ecological reserve (2,305,000 hectares). It borders Ngorongoro Conservation Area (809,440 hectares) to the southeast, Loliondo Game Controlled Area (400,000 hectares) to the northeast, Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve (151,000 hectares) to the north, and Grumeti Game Reserve (500,000 hectares) to the west. Elevations range from 920 meters to 1,850 meters. The Serengeti Plains mainly consist of volcanic ash-covered crystalline rock, with numerous outcrops of granite (hills). The northern and western strips are primarily mountainous, formed by volcanic activity. Two perennial rivers flow westward, along with numerous lakes, swamps, and springs. Rainfall is concentrated from November to May of the following year, peaking in December and March–April. The average annual temperature is 20.8°C. The annual average precipitation at an altitude of 1,150 meters is recorded as 1,210 mm. Rainfall decreases eastward and increases from north to west; in the narrow strip near Lake Victoria in the west, annual rainfall reaches 950 mm, while near the Kenyan border at the park’s northernmost point, it reaches 1,150 mm. Vegetation is predominantly open grassland, but can turn almost entirely desert-like during severe droughts. The main plants are grasses such as Cynodon dactylon and Sporobolus (representative of saline-alkali soils). In moister areas, Kyllinga species dominate. The central part of the park features large expanses of Acacia woodland savannah. Hilly vegetation, dense woodlands, and some gallery forests cover much of the northern part of the park. Lowland and montane vegetation mainly consists of Acacia.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania