Masai Mara Game Reserve:…..“Home of the Great Wildebeest Migration’’
Masai Mara National Reserve is one of the most popular tourism destinations in Kenya. The reserve is the home to annual wildebeest migration crossing from Serengeti consisting of hundreds of thousands of animals. The highlight of this spectacle is the crossing at Mara River where the strong current and crocodiles eliminate the weak ones and those that cross the river have another fight with predators lurk on the river banks.
Masai Mara National Reserve is one of the most popular tourism destinations in Kenya. The reserve is located in the Great Rift Valley in primarily open grassland. Wildlife tends to be most concentrated on the reserve’s western escarpment. The Masai Mara is regarded as the jewel of Kenya’s wildlife viewing areas.
Every year from June to October the world takes a front seat in Masai Mara for wildebeest migration. Annually, over 1.5 million wildebeests, gazelles gnus and Zebras roar converge at the border of Serengeti and Masai Mara making a spectacular entrance in a surging column of life that stretches from horizon to horizon, before finally plunging wildly into the raging waters of the Mara River, creating a frenzy as the fight against swift currents and waiting hungry crocodiles takes priority. Those that survive crocodiles and raging waters cross over to the patiently waiting predators such as hyenas, jackals, leopards and lions for another survival battle.
If you’re lucky enough to be in Masai Mara during the migration pick a spot by the river bank and watch as crocodiles and predators compete to pick-off stragglers from the clattering herds of wildebeest and zebras in Mara River.
The Masai Mara has two rivers Mara River and Talek River, full of crocodiles and hippos, and which carry water the whole year round. The abundance of water and excellent availability of food are the reasons why the Masai Mara has the greatest population of wild animals in the whole of Africa.
