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LAND
OF THE GREAT PLAINS
Welcome to
a safari through the wild parts of Kenya and Tanzania -
expanses of wilderness set aside to help preserve what is
left of the wildlife that once roamed across much of the
vast African continent.
The
Serengeti and Masai Mara are renowned for immense savannas
that reach to the horizon. Huge gatherings of game
animals still migrate with the seasons across these
grasslands, following fresh grazing just as they have done
for millennia. |
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plains stretch to distant horizons under wide African skies
- the natural but fragile beauty of the Serengeti and Masai
Mara. |
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African game parks are more famous than the Serengeti in
Tanzania and the adjoining Masai Mara in Kenya.
Together, they form an expanse of grassland and woodlands
where herds of game roam and big cats wait their chance for
a kill. The pastoral Maasai people settled the area
long before European explorers arrived. It is from
their language that the name Serengeti - meaning 'great
plains' or 'open space' - is derived. |
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The
realm of the big cats
Where the
herbivores graze, the predators wait out their chance
for a kill. The Serengeti and Masai Mara boast
one of the world's greatest concentrations of big
cats...
A
leopard stalks the Serengeti.
A
cheetah on the Serengeti grasslands. Famed as
the fastest land animals, these sleek and powerful
killers are built for the short-distance speed that is
their main hunting weapon. |
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Lions
- long regarded as a symbol of power,
nobility and courage - are still a common
site on the Serengeti and Masai Mara
despite centuries of persecution across
Africa.
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Masai Mara
hyenas |
The
plains that form the Serengeti and Masai Mara were born of
volcanic upheavals in Africa's past. Volcanic ash from
Rift Valley eruptions covered and smoothed these expanses of
land with a nutrient-rich soil. The grasses that now
grow on these wide savannas sustain the huge populations of
wildebeest, zebra and gazelles. |
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The
great migration
More than
a million wildebeest trek with other herbivores for
hundreds of kilometers through the plains of the
Serengeti and Masai Mara each year. Driven by a
quest for fresh grazing, it is the world's greatest
migration of large animals. |
Wildebeest
on the Masai Mara. Their annual, circular
migration is a perilous journey in which they must
face the hazards of crocodile-infested rivers swollen
with flood waters, and ever-present lions. |
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rituals of Maasai men include high leaps. In the
face of cultural pressures and the loss of their lands
and grazing rights, the proud Maasai strive to
maintain their traditional life. |
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Home
of the Maasai
The Maasai
people are synonymous with this part of Africa.
Despite a warrior reputation, their lives revolve around the
cattle and other livestock on which they depend. They
have lived mostly in harmony with the wildlife of places
that now bear evocative names, such as Serengeti and Mara,
that were derived from their language.
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