WINDOW SEAT
The ground looks empty in this aerial photo, but at the end of July 1.3 million wildebeest, 360,000 Thompson’s gazelle, 190,000 zebra will be crossing the Mara River en route to the grasslands of Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve. The exact timing of the annual wildebeest migration, a 300-mile round trip, can vary according to rain patterns. But generally the great herds remain in the Mara ecosystem, which also includes the northernmost portion of Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, until early October when thunderheads on the horizon and the promise of fresh grass lures the grazers south again towards the southern Serengeti where the wildebeest calve en masse toward the end of January.
The great migration dates to the 1960s, when the vaccination of cattle against rinderpest reduced the incidence of the disease among wild herbivores and led to a population explosion. The Mara River is the setting for the migration’s biggest drama. In July, herds mass on the southern bank waiting for the first lone animal to take the plunge, emboldening the rest to follow. Huge crocodiles lie in wait, while lions and leopards stalk the undergrowth of both banks waiting for easy pickings. Throughout the summer smaller herds cross and re-cross the Mara River and its tributaries following instinct and mysterious climate signals.
Back in the 1960s and '70s, travelers followed the herds by staying in mobile tented camps set up by private guides. These days the trend is toward ever more luxurious fixed lodging (check out the trips designed by our Condé Nast Traveler–vetted Africa specialists). Also, new website Safarious.com is offering a meeting place for wildlife enthusiasts and professional guides for hire and hosts many galleries and blogs great for nature travel research.
If you’re thinking about a river-crossing-themed migration safari, know that it’s not for the impatient or the queasy. Herds can linger by the river for days before one animal dares to take the plunge. So as not to spook the wildebeest, your guide will park the game-viewing vehicle at a distance from the bank, and in high season safari vehicles can line up for hours like spectators along a football field. Flies abound, and food is so plentiful that lions, leopards, and cheetahs, as well as scavenging hyena, often don’t bother to finish a carcass. When I was in the northern Serengeti last fall, half-eaten wildebeest corpses lay everywhere. The spectacle is a dream for photographers, but can be extremely disturbing to children. I’ll never forget the sights and sounds of my first migration safari: a huge male lion ambushing a wildebeest just as it was about to leap into the river; the plaintive bleating of a young wildebeest that had broken a leg and gotten separated from its mother; a black funnel in the sky that turned out to be hundreds of vultures circling a sandbank where more than 40 drowned wildebeest provided a banquet for crocodiles.
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