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Serengeti National Park Facts

Serengeti National Park Facts
Serengeti National Park is a 5,700 square mile park located in Tanzania, Africa. It is the oldest national park in the country, which began when a partial game reserve was created in 1921 to protect the lions in the region. It became Serengeti National Park in 1951. Prior to the arrival of the Britons in 1913, the first European known to visit the Serengeti was Oscar Baumann, in 1892. Oscar discovered Maasai people in the region that had been there for 200 years. The Britons evicted the Maasai from the park in 1959. Serengeti National Park has since grown to become famous for being a migration ground, wildlife viewing attraction, and other tourist destination.
Interesting Serengeti National Park Facts:
Approximately 90,000 people visit Serengeti National Park each year from all over the world. This does not include visits by these living in the local regions.
Because of the diversity of wildlife in Serengeti National Park it is the most popular and well-known safari destination in Africa.
Serengeti National Park has one of the oldest ecosystems and environments on earth, having changed very little in the last one million years. There have been two million year old remains of man found in the area.
Serengeti National Park is comprised of three regions including the Serengeti plains, western corridor, and northern Serengeti.
Wildlife in Serengeti National Park is very diverse. Visitors to the park may see lions, African leopards, African elephants, black rhinoceros, African buffalo, cheetahs, gazelles, giraffes, African wild dogs, baboons, crocodiles, spotted hyenas, wildebeest, zebras, impalas, ostriches, storks, cranes, and a variety of vulture species.
It is possible to tour Serengeti National Park by hot air balloon.
The annual migration of zebras and wildebeests draws millions of animals every year.
During the wildebeest migration roughly a quarter of a million wildebeests die every year due to extreme conditions such as exhaustion, lack of food or water, and from attacks by predatory animals.
In the last decade of the 19th century cattle plague and drought destroyed the population of animals in the Serengeti but they slowly recovered. By the 1970s the buffalo and wildebeest were strong in numbers again.
There are at least 100 types of dung beetles living in Serengeti National Park, along with more than 500 bird species.
Serengeti National Park has the largest hoofed animal herds in the wild, in the entire world.
Lizards are also commonly found in the rocky areas of Serengeti National Park.
An early conservation documentary was created in the 1950s by a father and son team Bernhard and Michael Grzimek. The film was titled Serengeti Shall Not Die. This helped to popularize the area and draw attention to the need to protect it.
Serengeti National Park includes grasslands, woodlands, marshes, plains, and kopjes, which make up what is called a savannah. A savannah is made up of semi-arid land. The world is one-quarter savannah.
Visitors to Serengeti National Park can stay in camps or hotels, or both. Safaris are popular with tourists, who can enjoy dining in outpost camps in the park.


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