Tanzania: One of the biggest wildebeest river crossings ever caught on camera!

Captured mid-September 2022 at the Mara River in the Kogatende area of Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, this is probably the largest Great Migration crossing captured on video in recent years. While wildebeest herds are usually scattered, a megaherd like this (estimated at 80,000-100,000 gnu) is extremely rare to see. Kudos to Ranger Emmanuel Mkenda for shooting the video and HerdTracker for publishing it!

Each year, more than 1.5 million wildebeest migrate in a gigantic clockwise loop across Tanzania and Kenya. After calving in the southern part of Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, the animals journey north into the Masai Mara, before returning once again near the end of the year.
These massive herds follow the seasonal rains across the African savanna in search of lush grazing lands, often pursued by predators such as hyenas, lions, cheetah, leopards and, at the many river crossings, gigantic Nile crocodiles. Dramatic scenes unfold daily as thousands of wildebeest are born and killed while the circle of life revolves non-stop.

South Africa: Kruger National Park is one of the most popular National Parks on TikTok!

South Africa's Kruger National Park is one of the most popular National Park on TikTok, a video-focused international social networking service. This is according to a study by US-based travel specialist ParkSleepFly, which gathered a list of all of the National Parks around the world and then ranked these according to the number of views posts tagged with the name of the National Parks had garnered on TikTok (as of 19 November 2021). Kruger National Park is ranked 9th on the list with 98,700,000 views. The most popular National Park on TikTok is Yellowstone National Park, followed by Denali National Park and Yosemite National Park. All three National Parks are located in the US. Serengeti National Park is the only other African National Park that made it to the list of the 51 most popular National Parks on TikTok. The National Park in Tanzania is ranked 16th with 73,900,000 views.

Top 10 most popular National Parks on TikTok:

1. Yellowstone National Park, USA: 630,300,000 views
2. Denali National Park, USA: 291,500,000 views
3. Yosemite National Park, USA: 279,800,000 views
4. Grand Canyon National Park, USA: 249,200,000 views
5. Göreme National Park, Turkey: 122,900,000 views
6. Joshua Tree National Park, USA: 120,800,000 views
7. Glacier National Park, USA: 115,000,000 views
8. Lake District National Park, UK: 105,900,000 views
9. Kruger National Park, South Africa: 98,700,000 views
10. Redwood National Park, USA: 95,200,000 views

Tanzania: Precision Air to launch scheduled flights to the Serengeti National Park!

Tanzanian airline Precision Air is set to introduce scheduled flights to the Seronera air strip in the Serengeti National Park on 01 October 2017. The airline will operate four flights a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays between between Julius Nyerere International Airport (DAR) in Dar es Salaam, the Seronera air strip and Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (ZNZ) on Zanzibar. Precision Air will be the only IATA member airline to operate scheduled flights to the Serengeti National Park.

online flight booking on TravelComments.com >>

Tanzania: Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) to increase rates on 01 July 2013

Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA), the public organisation with the mandate of managing all areas designated as national parks in Tanzania, has revised tariffs across fifteen Tanzanian National Parks, such as Serengeti National Park and Tarangire National Park.
The new increased rates cover not only the regular park entrance fees for Non East African citizens (USD$) and East Africa citizens (TSHS), but also a range of other services such as professional filming fees and fees for walking safaris, night game drives, canoeing, among others. TANAPA also renamed the park entry fee to "conservation fee". The new tariffs will be effective from 01 July 2013 until 30 June 2015.

As major reasons for the park fee changes, Tanapa names the following:

• To cater for the general increase in price levels of most commodities and services that has
• continued to escalate hence increasing operational costs for the organization.
• Improve tourism facilities and infrastructure such as roads, bridges and airstrips, to cater for increased number of visitors and diversify tourism activities in order to provide outstanding visitor experience.
• Improvement of staff incentives and packages to cope with increased cost of living.

TANAPA's new visitor rates (pdf) >>

Tanzania: Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa) revises tariffs

Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa), the public organisation with the mandate of managing all areas designated as National Parks in Tanzania, has revised tariffs across fifteen Tanzanian National Parks, such as Serengeti National Park and Tarangire National Park. Tanapa also renamed the park entry fee to "conservation fee".
The new tariffs will be effective as of 01 July 2013. According to a statement by the management of Tanzania National Parks, the changes to the currently existing tariffs needed to be done in order to meet the general increase in price levels of most commodities and services, as well as to improve the infrastructure such as roads, bridges and airstrips, to cater for the increased number of visitors and to diversify tourism facilities.

Park Fee changes from 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2015 (PDF file) >>

The "Great Migration" arrives in Kenya

The annual Great Migration of wildebeest from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania has arrived in the greener pastures of the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.
The circular migration, driven by the rain and the new grass that follows it, usually starts around end of May/early June in the Serengeti National Park when the first animals start moving to the areas around the Grumeti River. By end of June, the animals are moving further northwards, so that they arrive the Maasai Mara National Reserve via the Mara River by the end of July/early August. In early November, with the start of the short rains, the migration starts moving south to the Serengeti National Park again, usually arriving there in December in plenty of time for calving in February.

The Great Migration is one of the most impressive natural events worldwide, involving some 1,300,000 wildebeest, 500,000 Thomson's gazelles, 100,000 topi, 20,000 elands, and abhout 200,000 zebras.

Official Tanzania Tourism Board promo video "Tanzania - Authentic Africa"

Tanzania Tourism Board's promotional video "Tanzania - Authentic Africa" has been on youtube.com for a year now and "only" 226 people watched it so far. Is it a lack of advertisement that only such a small number of people have watched it? Is it too long (11min) for a promo video? Is noone interested in such videos? (update 01 Feb 2012: it is 421 views now)
I must say that I actually quite like it as the video highlights all the great tourism spots of Tanzania, it's widlife and people and various cultures. Well done @TTB!

Tanzania decides to scrap Serengeti road plans

update (06 July 2011): According to Reuters, Tanzania's Natural Resources and Tourism Minister Ezekiel Maige said in a telephone interview with the news agency (published on 01 July 2011): "The Serengeti road project has not been abandoned...we have just revised it. I don't know where all this confusion comes from. [...] The project is still there without a shadow of a doubt. But the road will be unpaved, so there will be no tarmac road or highway traversing through the Serengeti National Park."  No good news - it looks like the currently "unpaved" road will eventually become a Pandora's box...

update (29 June 2011): via The New York Times, published on June 27, 2011 : "Unfortunately, the letter announcing Tanzania’s change in plans is too ambiguous to celebrate, and it leaves the ultimate fate of Serengeti unresolved." [...]

Tanzania's government has informed the UNESCO World Heritage Committee that the North Road project through the Serengeti National Park, which would have split the northern part of the Serengeti wilderness and seriously disturbed the migration patterns of animals there, will get reconsidered. The government of the East African country will instead continue with its proposal to build a highway through the north but without the 53 km stretch of gravel road crossing the national park.
According to Serengeti Watch, which campaigns to preserve the Serengeti's ecosystem, Tanzania's decision to scrap the plans to build the highway is no cause for celebration as they expect that development will continue.
Serengeti Watch's interpretation of Tanzania's decision to scrap plans (via their newsletter from 23 June 2011): A battle has been won, but the struggle to save the Serengeti goes on. Roads will still be constructed up to the edges of the park. The pressures on the Serengeti, including a commercial corridor to Uganda, still exist. The highway across the Serengeti has been proposed three times now, and can be raised again.  But yes, let's congratulate ourselves on the work we've done.

Serengeti National Park with responsibletravel.com >>

Tanzania/Kenya: Migration into the Masai Mara has started

The greatest annual migration of wildlife has begun. According to several blogs from East Africa and referring to eye witnesses, zebras and wildebeests have started crossing the Mara River on their 500km way from the Southern Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to the northern edge of the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.



The annual migration lasts normally from June or July and lasts until as late as October or even November. During the so-called "Great Migration" around 2.5 million animals migrate north from the Serengeti plains in search of fresh pasture, before they return to the south four to five month later.

World Bank offers to help Tanzania building an alternative route to the (planned) Serengeti highway

update (03 March 2011): Germany has offered the government of Tanzania the option of financing a study on an alternative road connecting areas bordering the Serengeti National Park in the north without crossing through the park. [src.] Why don't the German government and the World Bank join forces?

That's what I call a great move - the often criticised World Bank just offered the Tanzanian government to help them financing an alternative (southern) route for the route that would otherwise cut through Serengeti National Park in the East African country. According to experts such highway through the northern part of the National Park would hinder the annual migration of some two million wildebeest and other wildlife. And stopping those herds from reaching their traditional dry-season feeding grounds, so the experts, would most probably lead to massive wildlife population crashes in the whole of Eastern Africa.

credits to http://www.savetheserengeti.org

Meanwhile Jakaya Kikwete, the Tanzanian President, has rejected any suggestions of any different routes, because only the planned 54km route through the Serengeti could ease transport problems facing poor communities surrounding the National Park. Let's hope that the Tanzanian government is clever enough to accept the help and agrees to build the southern route around Tanzania's tourism hotspot. I actually still don't understand why only  the "northern" route would the ease the transport problems and not the southern route. Can someone explain that to me?
The Serengeti is the most visited National Park in Tanzania, which tourism earnings jumped by 11.3 percent in 2010 to $1.28 billion. Think about that Mr Kikwete!
For more info about the Serengeti, the highway and initiatives against it please visit www.savetheserengeti.org!

Serengeti National Park with responsibletravel.com >>

1st International Serengeti Day on 19 March 2011

Serengeti Watch, a nonprofit organization that will monitor the Serengeti and bring world opinion and support to bear on vital issues, has delcared 19 March 2011 the 1st International Serengeti Day.  
Serengeti Day is both a celebration of the remarkable Serengeti ecosystem and an appeal to the world community to come to its aid.  A commercial route through the Serengeti will not only devastate the ecosystem and the great migration, but will hurt the people of Tanzania by destroying tourism revenue, tens of thousands of jobs, and a proud legacy of conservation.



Many countries have their own organizers who are coordinating Serengeti Day activities. Look for a discussion group in your country. Go to their Facebook page and click on the Discussions tab at the top. For more info about Serengeti Watch, the highway and much more, pls visit www.savetheserengeti.org

Serengeti National Park with responsibletravel.com >>

Serengeti highway to be build around the National Park?

"Despite world protest and a recent offer from the World Bank, Jakaya Kikwete, President of Tanzania, states that the northern route through the Serengeti will be built."
That was the headline of a an email from Serengeti Watch I received yesterday. Shocking news, but it seems that the Tanzanian government has actually changed plans.
According to a posting on Serengeti Watch's facebook page,  the road will be built, but AROUND the Serengeti. The poster is furthermore saying that the news about the redirected highway was already on the TV news.

 Let just hope that it is true...

UPDATE (03 Feb 2011): no updates on the highway so far... only contradictory news from different sources. Pls follow the facebook page of Serengeti Watch for more updates.

Serengeti National Park with responsibletravel.com >>

Video: Hippo rescues wildebeest and zebra foals (Mara River, Tanzania)

This might be the first ever recorded rescue of a baby wildebeest and a baby zebra by the same hippo on the Mara River (Serengeti NP) in Tanzania. Both foals were rescued within 10 min as they were trying to cross the raging river.



The hippo was watching as the wildebeest herd swam past. As soon as the calf jumped in, the hippo swam up to it and pushed it along all the way across until it had reached safety on the other side. It then went back and did the same for a zebra foal just minutes later.

more info about the Lemala Camps in Tanzania >>

Serengeti Highway: Tanzania risks spot on the List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has expressed its utmost concern about the proposed highway in the northern wilderness area of the Serengeti National Park during the 34th Session of the World Heritage Committee meeting in Brasilia, Brasil.

Along with the expressed concern, the World Heritage Committee has also asked Tanzania to consider one of the feasible and less environmentally damaging alternatives to the road. In terms of potential environmental deterioration, the damage to the park by the north road could be severe enough as to prompt inscription of the site on the List of World Heritage in Danger. [src.]

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee will now send a monitoring mission to Tanzania to discuss alternatives with the authorities as well as to asses the potential threads caused through the highway.

Serengeti National Park with responsibletravel.com >>
World Heritage Sites in Southern Africa >>

Stop the Serengeti Highway! Pls spread the word!

It's the greatest threat in the Serengeti's history — the government of Tanzania has approved a major commercial highway across the Serengeti National Park, in the direct path of ancient wildlife migration routes. Such a highway would be devastating.



Please visit www.savetheserengeti.org, sign the petition and spread the word to stop the Tanzanian government from building the highway! Thx a ton!

Pls also watch this - Tony Sinclair and Kristine Metzger (Biodiversity Research Centre - University of British Columbia, Canada) have put together a short presentation regarding the challenges of constructing a major highway through the northern part of the Serengeti National Park. Thank you to them both. It is an imperative to watch, due to the sensitivity surrounding this prestigious World Heritage Site.

Serengeti National Park with responsibletravel.com >>