Kenya Explorer Part Two: The Great Wildebeest Migration

The mention of Kenya conjures up images of lions, wildebeest, Maasai people, and days on safari. In this blog we will focus on the great wildebeest migration.

The Great Wildebeest Migration fully deserves to be known as such, as it entails the movement of over 1.5 million animals, a number that seems almost incomprehensible in size. Named the wildebeest migration due to the vast majority of wildebeest amongst the migration animals, the migration also features hundreds of thousands of zebra and tens of thousands of topi. Their journey is enormous, covering around 40,000km of land between the Serengeti in Tanzania and Masai Mara in Kenya.

The migration is a constant occurrence, as animals continually move in search of food and water. While we know roughly when and where the migration will be throughout the year, they are wild animals and as such, their movements are based on the availability of food and water, which itself is dependent on rainfall. We have no way of knowing for sure when they will leave Tanzania and travel into Kenya, and equally leave Kenya and travel back into Tanzania.

2018 has highlighted the unpredictability of the migration, as it arrived a few months late to some areas of the Masai Mara, Kenya. Tanzania had heavy and prolonged rains this year so the migration moved north much later; the fuller rivers making the crossings more treacherous than ever. Their arrival into the Masai Mara is later than what is considered the norm, usually mid to late July, but the migration is making the journey, in its own time.