Serengeti National Park Animals
Serengeti National Park Animals are the key tourist attractions in the popular endless plains of Serengeti. Serengeti National Park is one of the oldest national parks in Tanzania with the oldest untouched ecosystem. The Serengeti ecosystem is the largest African ecosystem that runs across the two countries of Tanzania and Kenya.
It starts from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the majestic Masai Mara. The wildebeest migration follows all this ecosystem, crossing the Mara River around July to August. The unique climatic conditions rivaled the different plant and animal species that have lived in the park in the past millions of years. The endless plains that are dominated by short grass dotted with kopjes and the Acacia trees are some of the factors that have attracted millions of animals to the park.
Serengeti animals/animals in the Serengeti consist of all of the African Big Five: lions, leopards, buffaloes, rhinos, and elephants. In the early 1890s the park had no elephants, but due to human pressure on the nearby conservancies, the elephants migrated to the park.
After this migration the Serengeti animals/animals in the Serengeti now gained the full list of the African Big Five. The other rare Serengeti animals are the African wild dogs, which used to be more popular but later vanished after the wild rabies claimed all their lives.
The Maasai locals, who were the first people to settle at the park, were pastoralists and used to kill the animals for their food as well as protect their livestock. Before the park was gazetted, the park was a hunting ground. After some time the colonial masters saw value in the area and reserved some part so as to protect the lions. Till now Serengeti National Park is home to a great population of predators.
It has more leopards, cheetahs, lions, hyenas, jackals, and others that are distributed across the park. Serengeti hosts over 2500 lions; hence, it’s one of the parks that hosts the largest population of lions in Africa. There are around 1000 leopards, which makes the rare leopards easily seen in the park, especially around the Seronera area.
It’s out of the huge population of animals that has credited the great wildlife safaris of Serengeti. Many guests rank it among the best protected areas in Africa for wildlife safaris/game viewing, as Serengeti never disappoints. Serengeti animals/animals in the Serengeti consist of over 70 animal species and over 500 bird species. The good number of animal species is attributed to the widespread habitats at the park.
Serengeti national park is a premium national park in Tanzania, it was voted several times as the best national park in Tanzania and among the top African destinations. Serengeti has worn several international a wards due to its overwhelming wildlife population that increases on daily basis.
The park was voted as one of the 7 natural wonders of Africa and one of the 10 natural wonders of Africa due to the unique wildebeest migration. The popularity of the park is based on this unique and largest animal migration on planet earth. The wildebeest migration is a clockwisemovement of millions of wildebeests and other animals like zebras and topis to Masai Mara. The movement is viewed throughout the year, but its climax is marked in July to August, when the wildebeests cross the Mara River.
Serengeti national park hosts rare species of Antelopes that are in abundance like Common Eland, Klipsringer, Bushbuck, Roan Antelope, Fringe-eared oryx, Greater Kudu mention but a few. The Serengeti national park animals are mostly permanent habitants at the park.
They are found in large numbers; for example, there are over 1.5 million wildebeests, over 200,000 zebras, over 300,000 gazelles, 10,000 topis, and others like Coke’s hartebeest, impalas, hippos, waterbuck, and giraffes, to mention but a few.
Other Serengeti National Park animals are small species of primates that are mostly found around the central area and the Western Corridor along the Grumeti River, where small riverine forests are found. The mostly sighted primates include yellow baboons, olive baboons, vervet monkeys, black and white colobus monkeys, patas monkeys, and others. These primates are seen in the dotted Acacia trees, while monkeys are on the kopjes, especially around the research center area.
The highlights of Serengeti national park animals is mostly taken up by the wildebeest migration. While on the other note the African big five members are a key factor for some guests who may not wish to see the wildebeest migration but donot want to miss the African big five members.
Serengeti is an excellent destination when it comes to African big five. Its not possible for you to have a safari in Serengeti and miss to see the 4 or even all the 5 members of African big five. The population of these members is high to extent that chances of seeing them are very high like seeing gazelle.
When talking about Serengeti national park animals you should not forget the birds. Serengeti is considered as birding paradise by birders. It hosts over 500 bird species with 34 raptors species found across the park. They are mostly permanent inhabitants and they can be viewed throughout the year. The park also has the five specials that are only seen in Serengeti and nowhere else in the entire world. The five specials include Usambiro Barbert, Grey-breasted spurfowl, Rufous-tailed weaver, Grey-Crested helmet-shrike and others.
The birding trips are best done during the rainy season from March to May and in November when the park birds are breeding. The rainy months also is the time when the migratory birds across the world come to Serengeti national park. The most sited birds in Serengeti include: Secretary bird, Yello-billed stork, Crowned cranes, kori bustards, Grey-Breasted spurfowl, Masai Ostrich, Martial Eagle, Marabou stork, Lovebirds, Vultures, Oxpeckers, Lesser flamingo and many more bird species.
