Tanzania
National Parks & Game Reserves
Ngorongoro
Conservation Area
Ngorongoro
Crater
Ngorongoro
Crater in Tanzania
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Ngorongoro
Crater & Ngorongoro Conservation Area - Tanzania
The
Ngorongoro Crater is a natural amphitheater created
about 2 million years ago when the cone of a volcano
collapsed into itself, leaving a 100 square mile (259km²)
caldron-like cavity. This caldera, protected by a
circular unbroken 2,000-foot high rim (610-metres),
contains everything necessary for Africa's wildlife
to exist and thrive. Ngorongoro is on Tanzania's 'northern
safari circuit', and receives a good number of visitors
who stay in lodges around the crater. Game viewing
vehicles descend the steep crater wall every morning
and spend the day on grass plains that are teeming
with animals. However, the dark of night belongs to
the animals, and all vehicles must leave the crater
floor by sunset. Early man also flourished around
here at Olduvai Gorge, not far from the Ngorongoro
Crater. This is known because in 1960, Mary Leakey
discovered a 1.75 million-year-old Homo habilis (nicknamed
'The Handyman' for his tool making skills), who represents
mans first step on the ladder of human evolution.
The
Maasai are the current human inhabitants and are at
liberty to live within the sprawling 2,500 square
mile (6,480km²) conservation area around the
crater. The Maasai never cultivate land as they consider
it demeaning. Instead they graze cattle, which hold
a god-like status in Maasai culture, and in return
the cows provide almost everything necessary to live;
meat, skin, milk, dung for the walls and floor of
their huts, and warm blood extracted from the neck
of a live cow and mixed with milk as an iron rich
food.
Animals
& Birds found in the Ngorongoro Crater
The
'lost world' of Ngorongoro was home to pigs the size
of a hippopotamus, sheep-like beasts with 6-foot (3
metre) horns and three-toed horses. Nowadays is inhabited
by about 30,000 animals, of which half are zebra and
wildebeest. This is the perfect situation for predators
and spotted hyenas and lion's lord over this domain.
There are also some leopards, cheetahs and three species
of jackals. Tanzania's few remaining black rhino are
regularly sighted in the crater, as are large herds
of buffalo.
In
the lake on the crater floor and in the Ngoitokitok
swamps, reside plenty of hippos who remain partially
submerged during the day and graze on grass at night.
Although the area sustains a huge variety of species,
not all live down in the crater. Some are better adapted
to roaming the extensive conservation area surrounding
the caldera. Elephant herds are noticeably absent
from the crater floor because the cows and calves
tend to prefer the forested highlands. They sometimes
appear at the crater rim but only rarely venture down
into the grasslands. Only mature bull elephants roam
the crater floor carrying around some massive tusks.
Also absent from the crater are impala, topi and oryx
who reside more on the eastern Serengeti plains, but
Grant's and Thompson's gazelles appear in the crater
in good numbers. Giraffes are also missing from the
crater as they favor the umbrella acacia and wait-a-bit
thorn trees found higher up. The salt-whitened shores
of Lake Magadi are turned a pastel pink from thousands
of flamingoes sifting algae and shrimps from this
soda lake. The lake also attracts a myriad other water
birds including avocets, plovers and black-winged
stilts whose long beaks probe the soft mud.
Ngorongoro Plains teeming with grazing
animals
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Black
manned Lion of Ngorongoro Crater
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 Spotted
Hyena in Ngorongoro Crater
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Ngorongoro
Crater Seasons
As
the rim of the crater is 333 feet (2,235m) above sea
level it is cooler at the top than down on the crater
floor, where it can get extremely hot.
Rainy Season: Short rains are November
and December when it gets hot and humid, and the long
rains are from March to May.
Dry Season: typically it is dry from
June to October and it can get quite cold during these
months on the rim of the crater.
Ngorongoro
Crater Highlights
•
Plains teeming with grazing animals
• Dark manned lions
• Clans of spotted hyena
• Black rhino
