For the Masai Mara-Serengeti wildebeest, every year is an endless journey as they embark on the Great Migration, chasing the rains in a race for survival.
The stage for this unique event is 154,000 square miles of woodlands, hills, and open plains—a wilderness larger than Holland. This vast expanse includes not only the Serengeti National Park and the Masai Mara National Reserve but also the dispersal areas beyond, including Mara Naboisho, Mara North, and Lemek conservancies.
The wildebeest are the key players in this 1,200-mile endurance test—all 1.5 million of them—accompanied by 200,000 zebras and half a million gazelles. Every step of the way, their progress is shadowed by predators: lion prides, leopards, cheetahs, wild dogs, and voracious clans of spotted hyenas. Not to mention the Nile crocodiles that lie in wait where the herds must ford the rivers. As a spectacle, it has no equal in the natural world, hence its claim to being the greatest wildlife show on earth.
The great migration begins and ends on the short grass plains in the far south of the park. These ancestral calving grounds are the only constant in their lives, the fulcrum around which the rest of the year revolves. They lie in the shadow of Ngorongoro, the giant caldera whose prehistoric eruptions laid down a bed of ash, creating plains with mineral-rich grasslands ideal for building young wildebeest bones. Here, peaking in February and March, wildebeest and zebra babies are born, tumbling forth in such huge numbers that the waiting predators can never eat them all. It is a cruel but effective survival strategy and one that has helped the ungainly wildebeest become the most successful of all African plains game.
If it rained all year, the herds would probably never leave. But there is no permanent water on the short grass plains, and when the long rains end in May, the herds must move on, trekking north and west to their dry season refuge in the Masai Mara. Some hurry north in endless columns through the Seronera Valley, but most move into the Western Corridor, where monster crocodiles lie in wait as they cross the Grumeti River.
Zebras are the first to arrive in the Mara, pouring across the Sand River to chomp down the waist-high meadows of red oat grass, with the wildebeest hot on their heels. Here they remain from July to October, spreading far out beyond the national reserve into the dispersal area where Naboisho, Mara North, and Lemek are situated. It’s the Mara’s busiest season, drawing visitors eager to witness the dramatic river crossings that take place at this time.
As the short rains begin in late October, the migration makes its way back into the Serengeti. By December, having emerged from the northern woodlands, the herds return past Seronera to gather once more on the calving grounds where they were born. Thus, the cycle continues, an extraordinary testament to the resilience and determination of these remarkable creatures.
Staying at our properties offers guests a unique vantage points to experience this spectacle. At Basecamp Wilderness in Mara Naboisho, Saruni Mara in Mara North, or Saruni Wild in Lemek, visitors can immerse themselves in the awe-inspiring scenes of the migration, with the added intimacy of exploring these pristine conservancies.
Experiencing the Great Migration is more than just watching animals move; it’s witnessing a miracle of nature, a journey that is as much about survival as it is about the enduring spirit of the wild. This annual odyssey, with its dramatic crossings and sheer scale, beckons travelers from around the world to become part of its story.
