Ngorongoro Crater – considered a world heritage

Ngorongoro is located in the north of Tanzania and lies at the western edge of fault zones on the border with Kenya. Ngorongoro Crater – considered a world heritage, is the sixth-largest crater in the world, the depth of which is 610 meters and 260 square meters area. km.A small airplane can fly to the landing strip at the edge of a volcano. Alternative – 470 km on the road from Nairobi. A picturesque and diverse landscape in which the cliff walls of Ngorongoro crater next to the spacious valleys, covered with grass and bushes. Reserves, spread around the Ngorongoro Crater is huge, it covers an area of about 6 500 sq km, its importance to this region of Africa has risen even more after he received the official status of the security zone and the International Biosphere Reserve. Once the whole area was part of the current Serengeti National Park, but as a reserve, it has two main objectives – the conservation of natural resources in the region, as well as protecting the interests and the traditional way of life of the local Masai tribe, which is still here keeping herds of cattle, sheep and goats.

Reserve is the heart of the crater, or caldera, Ngorongoro – remains just one of many extinct volcanoes in this area. Ngorongoro Caldera offers the most spectacular cluster of large game in Africa, it is also one of the world’s largest Calder: its diameter of 14.5 km, the depth from 610 to 762 meters and the total area of 264 sq.km.
Reserve Value is determined by the diversity of the natural environment here. Here you can find forests, swamps, lakes, rivers and vast steppes, or savannah, a member of the Serengeti ecosystem, which extends into Kenya and covers the nearby Masai Mara National Reserve.

Fauna:

In the park live large birds such as ostriches, cranes, Bustard. In the volcanic lakes at the bottom of the crater as large as life appear pink flamingos. Particularly popular among tourists colorful safari, which provided a wonderful opportunity to watch the flocks of zebras, Thompson gazelles, Grant’s gazelles, antelopes and CANNAT wildebeest, buffalo, warthog, jackals, hyenas, lions, elephants and other wild animals. It should be noted that most of the captive animals is a 600-meter cliffs surrounding the flat bottom of the crater.

What to do:

An unforgettable safari in the bottom of Ngorongoro Crater
Ngorongoro is one of the most famous park with animals in Africa, where their density per sq km higher than in other parks. The whole secret is that being on the plains on the crater, its inhabitants have been sharpened on all sides by hills and mountains, and mass kraternogo education. However, no such residence does not confuse animals and even on the contrary only helps to rapidly increase their numbers. None of the other reserves of Tanzania, there is no such number of critically endangered black rhino. There is also the most suitable place for observing the lions, especially for chernogrivym kind of lions.

Savannah feeding a huge number of a variety of herbivores, especially during the dry season when food is in short supply surplus of more than 2 million herbivores wide variety of sizes. List of animals in this region reads like a catalog of the African game and includes wildebeest, zebra, gazelle, buffalo, warthog and kannu, as well as giraffe, elephant and two-horned rhinoceros. Most of these animals kochuet across the vast space of the Serengeti, while others, such as the hippopotamus live near lakes and swamps. Where a lot of production, are inevitable and predators; Reserve Ngorongoro lion population supports, spotted hyenas, jackals, cheetah, leopard and Cervan.

A large number of animals might suggest a high load on the region, but in reality we are an excellent demonstration of an integrated balance achieved by nature in such difficult cases: each type of herbivore takes a specific niche, and to some extent dependent on others. Thus, zebra eats a tough part of many plants, offering access to more antelope juicy parts. Wildebeest dozhevyvaet left the grass, encouraging the emergence of new shoots, of gazelle. Without this constant pressure of herbivorous savannas a large part of the newly evolved into a forest.

The birds in the crater
Ngorongoro – not just a refuge for large game, this area is important for a large number of birds that either live and nest here, or winter, or use the area as a place of rest during a long-distance migrations. Among the permanent residents – ostrich, bustard, buzzard, black eagle, the African and Egyptian vulture. During the rainy season, many European migratory birds, including white stork, a swallow and the English Pliska, fled here from the cold northern winters. Less than regular guests – the small and ordinary flamingos, which arrive to eat at a variety of soda lakes, especially when the usual place of feeding them peresyhayut or when mass mortalities of blue-green algae (which happens from time to time, if algae becomes so much that they in the literal sense of poisoned by toxins, which themselves produce).

Volcanic lake
Inside the crater lake Magadi – a vast alkaline lake, which peresyhaet in the dry season and where to arrive a lot of pink flamingos. In the southern part of Lake Forest be Leurent, where elephants, monkeys and water the goats. Night in these woods sometimes looks rhinoceros, and the morning will now return to its flat pastures. In the swampy area on the car can be a fairly close match to the hippopotamus.

Masai Tribe
Strangely enough, from time to time in the crater area are Maasai tribes with their herds of livestock, which is surprisingly good ladit with wild inhabitants. Young massayskie Warriors guard and protect their livestock from the attacks of lions and leopards, kotorh years ago massaytsam had to kill to ensure that only impregnated.

Getting there:

Plane from the national parks of Tanzania (Arusha and Manyara of the charter). Arusha is located at 190 km, Lake Manyara – 60 km, Olduvay Gorge – 50 km, 145 km – Seronera, 225 km – Lobo, Nairobi – 415 km.

Seasons:

The edges of the crater is 2 235 m above sea level and so it is always cooler than the bottom, where it is a strong heat. In the period from November to December short rains come, and from March to May, heavy. The dry months from June to October, this time on the very edge of the crater is even cold.

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