Serengeti wildlife calving attracts thousands

The whole world seems to be currently gathering in the Serengeti Plains where more than 1.5 million wildebeests are delivering new calves at the rate of 8,000 newborns per day.

A wildebeest mother and calf graze on the grassy plains of Serengeti

Within less than a month, in this same month of February, a record-breaking total of 16,500 tourists, among them 5,800 domestic visitors, with more still coming, are filling the Serengeti plains targeting to witness the amazing wildebeests’ calving season.

Also attending the wildebeests’ mass “jungle reproduction” event are wildlife researchers and zoological scientists from all over the world.

“It is rather a spectacular sighting because this is the only place on earth where nearly two million large herbivores are “giving birth” at the same time and in unison, in what is known as “synchronized calving,” explained Mr William Mwakilema the Conservator at the SerengetiNational Park.

One of the visitors, Mr Robert Joseph, who hails from Belgium, said what he has seen was astounding and despite the pictures taken, many people back home may not exactly believe when he recounts the story to them.

The on-going wildebeests’ calving season is expected to progress for the next six weeks at the end of which, nearly 500,000 young calves will be born into the country’s second largest National Park. Serengeti covers 14,763 square kilometres. Even more enthralling, according to other tourists who are witnessing the event, is the fact that the animals do not even have to lie down but can deliver their babies just as they move about.

Also, once the calves drop from the wombs, it only takes two or three minutes before they start hopping about, running after their mothers. Due to that, even more visitors are landing in the Northern Tourist Circuit to get a piece of the adventure.

“Normally, February is a low tourism season but recording nearly 17,000 visitors in just one month, just goes to show how the world’s and only synchronized calving is creating great interest globally,” stated Mr Paschal Shelutete, the Public Relations Manager for the Tanzania National Park.

According to Mr Godson Kimaro the Serengeti Senior Park Warden, the plains attract over 350,000 tourists every year and peak tourism season is usually between the months of June and September when the north-bound great migration of the same ungulates usually takes place.

But most of the half-a-million newborn wildebeest calves may not survive the jungle full of hyenas numbering 7,500, lions at 3,000 and leopards, not to mention marauding wild dogs and cheetahs, all of which should be happy to chew the soft and tender bones of the young herbivores.

Mr Seth Mihayo the Tourism Conservator at SENAPA pointed out that half of the newborn wildebeests are likely to die from predator attacks, drowning into the giant Mara River or simply succumb to the hostile elements that accompany the ungulates 1,000 kilometres’ annual migration.

“But it is the way of mother nature balancing the ecosystem because the 2010 animals census indicated that there were 1.5 million wildebeests, which means an increase of 500,000 more ungulates every year could overwhelm the park, therefore natural selection trims the lot to manageable population,” explained Mr Mihayo.

Serengeti wildlife migration likely to stop

 A glimpse of the world famous annual migration in Serengeti National Park.

Early indicators show that the world famous Serengeti Migration involving a massive movement of more than 2.5 million Serengeti National Park wild animals may not enter Kenya’s Maasai-Mara this year.

Experts at Serengeti say that the time spent by the ungulates in Maasai Mara has been dropping from two months to just a few weeks in recent years, with the shortest time being recorded last year when the animals stayed in Kenya for less than two weeks.

“Increasing human activities at Maasai- Mara, which is the Kenyan side of the Serengeti Eco-system, is what causes the annual migration of wildebeests to reduce and eventually stop going to the Kenyan sanctuary altogether,” explained Mr Godson Kimaro, the senior Park Warden at Serengeti National Park.

He also recalled a scientific study by the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) which had warned of imminent changes in the wildebeest migratory patterns in future and so far the trend has started to change. Last year, there was a sudden change in the ungulates’ migratory behaviour when instead of spending two months (eight weeks) in Maasai Mara, the animals stayed there for only two weeks before rushing back to Tanzania.

This year also the migration, involving 1.5 wildebeests, 400,000 zebras and thousands of antelopes as well as gazelles (with predatory hyenas and lions on tow in the rear), seems to be spending more time than usual in the southern part of the Serengeti as well as the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Normally the Serengeti Migration enters Kenya in mid-August but at that time this year, the animals will still be far from the crossing point. It is thus feared that by the time the period to cross to Kenya arrives, the ungulates will still be much further from the border such that when the interval to start moving back south reaches, the animals may be forced to return without reaching Maasai-Mara.

Mountain Gorilla Safari in Uganda

Visiting mountain gorillas in their natural habitat is one of the things a person must do in their lifetime. It is a unique experience. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is home to 400 of the 800 remaining mountain gorillas in the world. Three family groups are habituated to humans and eight visitors are permitted to spend an hour observing each family each day. Permits must be purchased in advance at the Uganda Wildlife Authority office in Kampala. The tour companies take most of the permits as they become available, so the independent traveller has to act fast and appear in person with $500 US per person. Bills must be dated 2002 or later and older US bills will be rejected. It is good to see the money going to the local people instead of an upscale commercial operation. Facilities are rudimentary, but well maintained and clean.

Checking in for your gorilla trek is time consuming, so show up early. First you have to go to the booth at the entrance to the park, where a ranger will want to see your permit and passport, will ask whether you have any communicable diseases and will check your name off on a list. You are then directed to the park ranger compound where a more senior ranger will want to see your permit and passport, ask about communicable diseases and check your name off on another master list. Finally there is an orientation meeting where you are instructed about behavior near gorillas, the possibility of trekking through the jungle an seeing no gorillas and the fact that if the guide determines you have a communicable disease you will be sent home with no gorilla sightings and no refund. You are given a chance to hire a porter for 10,000 Uganda shilling (about $6.30 CAD). This is a wise investment because carrying a pack with your camera, rain jacket, lunch and water in a humid jungle is not pleasant and it is good to provide income to the locals. Several of the ladies in our group found that the porters could help them up steep climbs and across streams in the jungle. One porter even carried a lady who developed a sore knee for about half he distance. These slight looking young porters are incredibly strong and able to run up steep hills carrying a heavy load.

You have to drive from the assembly point to the start of your trek. The other trekkers were with tour groups who had 4×4 vehicles, but we had a little 2 wheel drive Toyota Corolla and were concerned we would not be able to keep up. The ranges offered to let us ride in their 4×4 Land Rover pick-up. There is a bench seat where my wife and daughter could sit beside the driver and I got to sit in the back with the porters, rangers and guides. I got a good close look at the AK47′s the rangers carry in the jungle. The young people in the back of the truck had a good time as we drove to the start of our trek. I could not understand much of the African language they were speaking, but there seemed to be some good Natured teasing of a cute female porter involving the word Impenetrable from the park name.

We finally arrived at the start of our trek. Gorillas move through the jungle as they feed so it is not possible to tell in advance how far the trek will be. One of the groups had to walk 35 minutes to see their gorillas and the other 45 minutes. Our gorillas had moved during the night so it was a 3 1/2 hour hike before we caught up with them. This started with about a kilometer through some very steep farm land before we got to the jungle, and then up and down jungle covered hills and across several streams. As you move through the jungle, a guide stays at the head of the group and porters are assigned to watch the back for stragglers. Rangers armed with AK47 assault rifles move ahead, to the flanks and to the rear of the group. These rangers seem to do most of the work of locating the gorillas and finding a good place to stop, remove packs and get cameras ready before approaching.

We finally caught up with our gorilla family and spent an hour observing and photographing them from close distances. This is an unforgettable experience.