Nature Atlas

How Nature Works
Ecosystems

Serengeti

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A savanna grassland ecosystem spanning northern Tanzania and southwestern Kenya, famous for hosting the largest overland animal migration on Earth: more than a million wildebeest, accompanied by hundreds of thousands of zebra and gazelle, follow an annual clockwise circuit driven by seasonal rainfall and fresh grazing, crossing crocodile-filled rivers along the way. This concentration of grazing herds in turn supports one of the densest large-predator populations in Africa, including lion, cheetah, leopard and hyena, and the African elephant ranges across the ecosystem's woodlands and grasslands alongside them. Most of the ecosystem lies within Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and the adjoining Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, together forming one continuous protected landscape across the international border.

Facts
Area (sq km)
30,000 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Demonstrates

The Serengeti grassland is a fire-adapted ecosystem: regular natural and human-set fires clear dead grass, recycle nutrients into the soil and maintain the open savanna structure the ecosystem grazing herds depend on.

Hosts

African Lion, Species

The Serengeti's own entity record names lion among the dense large-predator population its migration herds support.

In Biome

Savanna, Biomes
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.View the Source

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