Serengeti

The Serengeti (/ˌsɛrənˈɡɛti/ SERR-ən-GHET-ee) ecosystem is a geographical region in Africa, spanning the Mara and Arusha Regions of Tanzania. The protected area within the region includes approximately 30,000 km² (12,000 sq mi) of land, including the Serengeti National Park and several game reserves. The Serengeti hosts one of the world's largest land animal migration (in terms of total body weight), which helps secure it as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa.

The Serengeti is also renowned for its large lion population and is one of the best places to observe prides in their natural environment. Approximately 70 large mammal and 500 bird species are found there. This high diversity is a function of diverse habitats, including riverine forests, swamps, kopjes, grasslands, and woodlands. Blue wildebeest, gazelles, zebras, and buffalos are some of the commonly found large mammals in the region. The Serengeti also contains the Serengeti District of Tanzania.

The name "Serengeti" is often said to be derived from the word "seringit" in Maa, meaning "endless plains".^{[dubious – discuss]} However, this etymology does not appear in Maa dictionaries.

For eons, African wildlife have roamed freely across the vast rolling plains of the Serengeti, which was sparsely inhabited by humans. This changed when nomadic pastoralists of the Maasai began to migrate to the area in the early 1800s.^{[citation needed]}

The Maasai, however, were struck by drought and disease. Thousands died in the 1880s from a cholera epidemic and in 1892 from smallpox. Making matters worse, their cattle were wiped out by Rinderpest (a bovine viral disease). Later in the 20th century the Tanzanian government re-settled the Maasai around the Ngorongoro Crater. Poaching, and the absence of fires (which had been caused by humans), allowed dense woodlands and thickets to develop over the next 30–50 years. Tsetse fly populations now prevented any significant human settlement in the area.

By the mid-1970s, wildebeest and Cape buffalo populations had recovered and were increasingly cropping the grass, reducing the amount of fuel available for fires. The reduced intensity of fires has allowed acacia to once again become established.

In the 21st century, mass rabies vaccination programmes for domestic dogs in the Serengeti have not only indirectly prevented hundreds of human deaths, but also protected wildlife species such as the endangered African wild dog.

Each year around the same time, the circular great wildebeest migration begins in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area of the southern Serengeti in Tanzania and loops clockwise through the Serengeti National Park and north towards the Masai Mara reserve in Kenya. This migration is naturally caused by the availability of grazing. The initial phase lasts from about January to March, when the calving season begins – a time when there is plenty of rain-ripened grass available for the 260,000 zebras that precede 1.7 million wildebeest and the following hundreds of thousands of other plains game, including around 470,000 gazelles.