15/06/2016
MASAI MARA FACTS
1. The Maasai Mara National Park occupies an area of 1510 square kilometers and it is managed by the local authorities of Narok County in southwestern Kenya.
2. Maasai Mara National Park sits on the ancestral land of Maasai People of Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania. They have protected the wildlife for hundreds of years.
3. The Maasai People are nomadic pastoralists and thus the wildebeests, just like their cattle, are regarded as the wealth of the Maasai. They therefore ensure peaceful co-existence with the wild animals.
4. The Maasai Mara National Park is considered the greatest wildlife park in Africa. It has over 200 square miles of open grassland where the wild animals such as Wildebeests, Zebras, Gazelles, Antelopes, Ostriches, Rhinos, Buffaloes, Elephants, Giraffes, Lions, Cheetahs, Leopards, and Hyenas etc. roam free in their natural habitat.
5. The Flora in the Maasai Mara is by and large an extension of the Savannah Grassland on the plateau of the Eastern Africa Great Rift Valley that stretches all the way from Ethiopia to Zambia.
6. About 1.5 million wildebeests cross the Great Mara River in Maasai Mara to look for pastures in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park.
7. Unlike what most people believe, Wildebeests are not the only animals that migrate. Zebras and antelopes too migrate. About 350,000 Zebras and 200,000 antelopes will find their way across the Mara River to Tanzania.
8. The Maasai Mara Migration is the world's largest Terrestrial Migration by mammals.
9. The best time to view this spectacle is July to October. The animals will cross over again from Serengeti to Maasai Mara after the pastures are regenerated.
10. Apparently, the African carnivores that include lions, snakes, crocodiles, hyenas, leopards and cheetahs waylay the hapless herbivores as they cross. When carnivores are feasting, the herbivores will be doing their best to reach the other end for better pastures.
You can see this spectacle on a hot air balloon or on tour buses. If you have never been to Kenya, then you have missed out on one of the greatest terrestrial spectacles on the globe.