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The Great Migration Year-round
To be precise, there isn't a beginning
nor an end to the Great Migration, it's a circular, never-ending
pilgrimage that starts again and again. Animals will follow
the circular clockwise route year after year, back and forth
from the Serengeti
National Park, in northern Tanzania, to the Masai Mara National
Reserve, in southern Kenya.
However, for the sake of setting a starting
point, we could say that the Great Migration begins from late
January to mid-March, that is, when things always
begin: with birth. Indeed, several hundred thousand wildebeest
calves are born each year during this period, though many
will be shortly hunted by hyenas, jackals, and other predators.
The animals set off in April, when
the Southern Serengeti plains have dried up and become increasingly
worn out. The herds gather and start the trek, following a
North West direction, into the Western Corridor (near Lake
Victoria), where they'll find fresh tall grasses. Although
the herds include many different herbivores, the big numbers
are made by Wildebeest, of course, Thomson's gazelle, and
Zebra: respectively, 1.3 million, 360 thousand, and 191 thousand.
Integration among the migration companions is highly accomplished.
On the one hand, each species eats a different part of the
grass sward and so do not compete. On the other, a larger
number provides a greater safety for individuals, as there
are more targets for predators.
Unfortunately, gazelles and zebras aren't
the wildebeest's only companions. Several gangs of carnivores
-most notably lions and hyenas- march along, closely following
an irresistible and fairly convenient-to-catch protein source.
Hunting is not strictly necessary: many animals will fall
to the fatigue of the trip, making an easy lunch for the meat-eaters.
By the end of May the herds move to
the northern Serengeti plains and woodlands. After finishing
its mineral-rich pastures, the herd continue to the Masai
Mara National reserve, usually between the last week of June
and the first of July. At this point, the groups coming
from the Serengeti meet the resident ones that inhabit the
Loita Plains and Hills.
The migration route is cut again and again
by the rivers that run into Lake Victoria -Mara, Grumeti,
and Mbalangeti- and their tributaries. Rivers are most feared
by gnus and their co-migrants, not only for the steep banks
and harsh torrents, but also because of the crocodile populations
that lie in wait, impatient to sink their teeth on the warm
meat. This is what happens during July, when the gnus
and company cross the Mara river and its tributary, the Talek.
From late July to the first days of October,
the animals that got through the stressing river fording can
graze peacefully on the Masai Mara grasslands, though their
tranquillity is repeatedly cut by the tireless predators:
lions, cheetahs (who prey on calves only), and hyenas.
By mid to late October, rains
leave the Mara for the Serengeti,
and the migratory animals make the reverse route, heading
for the southern Serengeti plains once again, where the wildebeest
will graze, give birth to a new generation of calves, and
wait for the cycle to start all over again.
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