Classroom lesson 路 Wildlife馃嚬馃嚳 Tanzania

The Serengeti and the Great Migration

1.5 million wildebeest and half a million zebras on the move

A vast herd of wildebeest spread across the Serengeti plains

Photo 路 Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

The Serengeti is a huge area of grassland in northern Tanzania - the name comes from a Maasai word meaning 'endless plains'. It is the home of the world's biggest land animal migration: around 1.5 million wildebeest and half a million zebras walk in a giant loop around it every year, following the rain.

Tell me more

Most of the year, the herds are inside Tanzania. The southern Serengeti is where the babies are born. In a single short period in January and February, around half a million wildebeest calves arrive. So many babies arrive at the same time that predators can only catch a few - most of them survive together.

A newborn wildebeest can stand up within minutes and run within an hour. It has to. By the time it is a few weeks old, it is walking with the herd, sometimes 20 kilometres in a single day, learning to keep up.

When the dry season comes and the southern grass disappears, the whole herd starts walking north. They cross rivers, climb hills and trek for hundreds of kilometres in search of fresh grass. The full loop is around 800 kilometres long - and the animals do it every year, generation after generation, without maps.

The Serengeti is also home to lions, elephants, leopards, giraffes and over 500 kinds of bird. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which means the whole world has agreed to look after it. Scientists have been watching the same lion families there for over 50 years.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Why might it help if all the wildebeest babies are born within a few weeks of each other instead of spread across the year?
  2. 02How do you think the herds know when to start walking? They have no maps and no calendars.
  3. 03What would be the hardest part of being a wildebeest calf on your first migration?
Try this

Classroom activity

Find the Serengeti on a world map. Measure 800 km on the map using the scale bar. Now look up a journey that long in your own country (e.g. one end to the other). How does that compare to your usual walk to school?