East African Wildebeest Migration
The East African migration takes place in two main areas – Tanzania’s Serengeti in the south and Kenya’s Maasai Mara in the north.
Each destination is good at completely different times of the year - generally the migration is active in Tanzania’s Serengeti for 9 months; it’s active in Kenya’s Maasai Mara for 3 months during August/September/October.
The migration itself involves around 1.5 million wildebeest, gazelle and zebra on the move. Resident game (predators and other mammals) are generally fixed to territorial areas and don’t follow the migration much beyond their own ranges; they can be found in their home ranges year round.
More detail on the Serengeti can be seen here - note the Serengeti Plains are in the south, the western corridor in the west, the Lobo Hills in the north and Seronera in the centre. More detail on the Maasai Mara can be seen here.
The migration is largely driven by the rains, which determine when the animals start moving. A basic outline of how this works is described here, but it is important to remember that rains cannot be timed exactly, and so the migration doesn’t operate on a set schedule! It also doesn’t follow a set route; nor, indeed, do the animals all go the same way. This is part of what makes the site of the migrations so spectacular – hundreds of thousands of animals following different routes to the same destination, spread across the vast plains as far as the eye can see.
Here's a simplified explanation of how the rains drive the migration...
The southern plains of the Serengeti are very fertile but they need rains to ripen the grass for a massive population of grazers.
The "short" and light rains fall in November and December (sometimes as early as October) and draw the migration rapidly south from Kenya's Maasai Mara down the eastern side of Tanzania's Serengeti into these sweet short-grass plains.
The wildebeest and other ungulates settle in the southern plains between about January and April - usually the best time to see the migration in Tanzania.
In April and May the "long" or heavy rains set in and the depleted southern plains are less attractive than the long grass plains up in the western corridor and the migration has started moving north (westerly) again.
Large river crossings on the Grumeti and Mara Rivers occur as the migration heads back into Kenya's Maasai Mara - the season dries out and fresh grazing and water can be found in the far north. The Masai Mara is usually at its best in August, September and October.
Now if only the rains fell on cue!
The migration is a sight to remember, and is something that every traveller to East Africa should plan on seeing.
Despite all the vagaries of weather patterns and apparently random game movements coupled with pressure to find the right spots ... planning a trip to catch the best of the migration is reasonably straight forward...
Click here to see "how to plan a migration safari".
