Serengeti National Park

The Serengeti National Park is one of the most important protected areas in East Africa. It has an area of 14,763 km ², and is located in the north of Tanzania, bordered to the north by the Kenyan border, where it is continuous with the Maasai Mara National Reserve and borders  other important wildlife reserves. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1981.

The name of the park, in the language of the local Maasai people, means "endless plain". The park has a total area of 14,763 km ². The tropical climate of the area is characterized by two periods of seasonal rains: the "long rains" from April to June and the "short rains" from October to December. The southern part of the park consists of large arid grasslands, interrupted by hills of metamorphic rock often surrounded by bushes and trees, and known locally as kopjess . These small rock formations have emerged as a result of erosion of the surrounding terrain by weathering.

Going north the landscape changes: the higher rainfall, which also supplies some permanent river, favors growth of gallery forests and the formation of wooded savannah areas (characterized by grooves of acacia) and thorny bush savannah. The Serengeti is famous above all for its exceptional wealth of wildlife, making it one of the most representative regions of the savanna ecosystem sub-Saharan Africa and one of the major tourist attractions in East Africa.

There are among other things, all five so-called "big five": elephant, lion, leopard, rhino (black) and bufalo. The herds of ungulates (especially zebra and wildebeest) reach great abundance in this region, and give rise to spectacular seasonal migrations between the grasslands of the south and the Maasai Mara. Stirring up the ground with his hooves and their feces, these animals contribute substantially to the annual renewal of the grass in the park.