
Magical wildebeest migration in Masai Mara National Reserve
Wildebeest migration Masai Mara National Reserve is the top and most tourist attraction that attracts visitors to come to Kenya to see the world’s animal migration.
Masai Mara National Reserve is the biggest ever happened movement of the wildebeest on the planet earth and it is regarded as usual activity and attraction on the African continent that only happens in Masai Mara National Reserve.
The wildebeest migration in Masai Mara National Reserve is composed of thousands of wildebeest animals, zebras, elands, and other animals that have to cross the Mara River from Serengeti national park in Tanzania to catch up with the greener pastures in Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.
The wildebeest migration in Masai Mara National Reserve takes place annually throughout the year which has attracted visitors’ attention to come to the reserve and see the magical migration of these animals.
The wildebeest migration follows the rainfall pattern and mostly the animals cross from the Northern Part of Tanzania to southern Kenya is looking for fresh pastures and fresh water.
This is the moment of truth where visitors do enjoy the animals crossing the great Mara River, struggling to run away from the predators that await them as they do cross the river. Remember that the river itself is full of crocodiles which even put more crossing on tension.
The movement of the wildebeest is circular and animals all around take over 3000 kilometers and the movement is just clockwise without any clearly marked starting and ending points of these animals.
Because of this whole movement, someone would be lying to you that he or she knows the best areas and times when this animal will be crossing the river hence hard even to determine and know the day when the actual crossing is happening.
Animals do move anyhow and there is no clear leader in the herd that takes the lead sometimes you might find when the calves are the ones leading or when the females are the leaders or when the males are leading the herd.
As I earlier said this is wonderful circular activity yearly that happens across the conservation areas of Serengeti National park in Tanzania, Ngorongoro, and now the remarkable Masai Mara National Reserve.
It is believed that this great movement of animals starts at the beginning of the year in the Ngorongoro when the wildebeest calving season reaches in Ndutu.
In Ndutu is where the calving season for the wildebeest happens which means that millions of the wildebeest migration are born and after birth, the movement continues to the Seronera area where Serengeti National Park.
From here the animals continues to the now the western part of Serengeti National park. In here they will meet the river called Grumeti River which they will as well cross. This continues and in the months of July annually, now when this migration is best seen from Mara river in Masai Mara National Reserve.
The key storytelling areas how the Masai Mara National Reserve Wildebeest migration happens.
There are a lot of perceptions or misconceptions that people think of the Masai Mara National Reserve wildebeest migration and some of this misconception is that Masai Mara National Reserve wildebeest migration takes place in July and October. Actuary the wildebeest migration happens all the time of the year only that it ends and it is witnessed in July around the River Mara when the animals are crossing the river, Mara.
Therefore the magical wildebeest migration in Masai Mara National Reserve happens in July when animals from northern Tanzania in Serengeti crosses the Mara River to the mighty Masai Mara National Reserve. October is the wildebeest returning month when they can be seen crossing back from Masai Mara National Reserve again to Serengeti National Park and the cycle continues yearly like this. However, this time around the Movement doesn’t use the same route and thus you might not see them crossing the Mara River again.
Can the Mara River crossing of wildebeest movement be predicted?
The wildebeest migration in Masai Mara National Reserve the starting a time and the day when the animals cross the river actuary cannot be known or cannot be predicted by any individual and sometimes you might say that even the wildebeest themselves don’t know the time when they are supposed to cross the river because even they reach on the river it is hard for them even to know who is going to first start crossing so this is very hard to predict.
Some of the wildebeest animals have been seen even running back after reaching on the river and fail to cross to the other direction of Masai Mara National Reserve while another stop there and up grazing from the river banks with other animals such as the elephants and buffaloes among others.
Also what can’t be left out here is that the wildebeest migration in Masai Mara National Reserve follows the pattern of the rainfall. The rains tend to make vegetation so tall with long grass and thus the wildebeest will always go to look for the short grass where they can easily see their predators such as lions, leopards, and others.
As it is in Africa therefore, it is very hard to predict the time when the rains come whether in small or in large quantities and thus so hard to predict the wildebeest movement until just is seen happening.