Serengeti is the ancestral land of the Maasai Community.
The Maasai tribe had been grazing their cattle in the Serengeti plains for around 200 years when the first European explorers arrived. German geographer Dr. Oscar Baumann entered the area in 1892. The first British to see the Serengeti, Stewart Edward White, recorded his explorations in 1913.
The Serengeti is home to the world’s largest movement of animals, called the “Great Migration.” More than 1.7 million wildebeest, 500,000 zebra, and 200,000 antelope make their way from the Ndutu region of the southern Serengeti northward through the whole length of the “endless plains” to Kenya’s Masai Mara (a total of 500 miles!).
This cyclical migration begins in March (after the annual birthing of the calves at Ndutu in February) and ends in January. During this time around 250,000 wildebeest die from thirst, hunger, exhaustion, and predators.