When talking about a safari in Tanzania, there are two places that people usually ask about. One is the famous Serengeti, obviously, but the other is the Ngorongoro Crater. The crater itself belongs to a much larger area known as the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which is made up of other craters as well, along with a host of large lakes and gorges.
The area itself is found in the northwestern parts of Tanzania and all falls under the Serengeti-Ngorongoro-Maasai Mara ecosystem. The eastern boundary is made up of the Great Rift Valley, while the western boundary is the Serengeti National Park. Further west is Lake Victoria, and in the east you can find Mount Kilimanjaro. This vast area covers around 8290 km squared (3200 miles squared).
Incredible History
As far as East Africa goes, this is one of the very areas where there are some good records of the ancestral beginnings of man on the continent. At a place called Laetoli, there are footprints that can be seen that date back to 3.5 million years. Some of our ancestors walked across wet volcanic ash, which a fresh eruption of ash then covered these tracks and so kept them preserved. About halfway between Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti lies the Oldupai Gorge, and here many animal and hominid fossils were found. These were all preserved in the gorge as lava flows, ash deposits, and mud layers held them there. There is a small museum present in the gorge, and it is well worth a visit if you make it there for a visit.
The Leakey family lived here, and they, along with their excavations, were able to trace the development of humans in Africa and their ancestral forms over millions of years. Part of their discovery showed that modern man was found in the area about 17 000 years ago. The Stone Bowl people occupied the area for around 10 000 years, but they disappeared around a thousand years ago. Another group that can still be found in the Ngorongoro highlands are the Mbulu people that arrived around 2000 years ago. The Datoga, a pastoral tribe, arrived about 300 years ago, but they were chased out by the Masai Tribe that is still found there today.
Landscape and Climate
The landscapes in Ngorongoro are a good combination of both old and new geological processes. The granite and gneiss rocky outcrops that can be found in the Serengeti Plains originated a few hundred million years ago. About 20 million years ago, the eastern side of Africa began to split and rift; the land between this subsided. The earth’s crust then gradually thinned and got softer, allowing molten materials to thrust through the surface to form lava beds and later on, volcanoes.
Within the Ngorongoro area, the oldest volcanoes were formed along the Eyasi Rift. It is believed that at its greatest size, the Ngorongoro volcano was as large as Kilimanjaro mountain itself. The lava that filled the volcano, formed a solid cap, and it was this cap that collapsed to form the caldera we now know today. The crater itself covers 304 km², is about 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) wide, and the depth from the rim to the floor is between 610 and 760 meters. The huge amounts of ash that was pumped out of all of these volcanoes are what created the incredibly fertile soils that sustain the huge herds of herbivores on the plains today. The landscape is now dominated by mountains in the north and east, while the west has undulating plains.
With the altitude range being between 1010 and 3645 meters, the area has a very mild temperate climate. There are two shorter rain periods, October and November, with the second being the beginning of March to the end of May. Most of the rains fall in the afternoon and night, building up after warmer mornings. The annual rainfall is between 500 and 1700 mm, with the higher-lying areas receiving the larger amounts of rain. Although temperatures are good, it can get cold at night, especially in the dry season, and even frost has been recorded.
Fauna and flora
The habitats in the entire Ngorongoro area are so different from one area to another with such a variety in altitude that a large amount of plant and animal species are found here. Just looking at the vegetation, it can be divided into montane forest, dry woodland with some dense thickets, and then grasslands on the open plains. On the rims of the crater, there are many large trees found in the forests, with large Euphorbia trees taking over as you get closer to the bottom. Once in the crater itself, it is mostly made of grassland with dotted Umbrella thorns and thickets here and there, especially around some of the drainage systems.
The main draw for people to the crater is the large predators that are found here, along with the animals that they feed on. Most of these species are found in other parts of the conservation area, but one that is only found in the crater itself is the black rhino. There is a healthy population here, and it seems as if they are well protected in the area.
These rhinos are not the only large herbivores, and there are quite a few more. When it comes to elephants, it is mainly only the bulls found in the crater, as the climb down into the crater is too steep for small calves, and so most herds avoid it altogether. There are, however, large herds found around the rest of the area. As with elephants, it is much the same with buffalo, although large herds do occasionally make it down from the highlands above. Masai giraffe and hippos are also found in the area. The wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle that are found in the crater are rather permanent, rather than migrating like the rest of their kind found in the area. There are numerous other antelope in the area, from the largest, the eland, to the smallest, the dik-dik.
Large predators are all over, and lions are plentiful inside and outside of the crater. Spotted hyenas are as well, with some large clans found in the area as they often compete with the large prides of lions. Cheetahs and leopards are not as numerous in the crater itself because of the presence of the other two large predators. They do show themselves now and then but are easier to find in other parts of the conservation area. Three species of jackal, bat-eared foxes, caracal, and serval are also to be found in the area.
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area turns out to be a magic area for wildlife but is also strewn with history. This makes it a fascinating area to visit and definitely one to add to the bucket list.
