The Serengeti Plain - An Introduction
The Serengeti ecosystem
The Maasai. Source: Serengeti National Park.
Serengeti National Park is a 5600-square-mile park in Tanzania. Serengeti comes from a Maasai word, sininget, which means an extended place. The Serengeti ecosystem covers almost 10,000 square miles and is nearly enclosed on all sides by natural barriers which discourage large mammals from moving in or out. Nearly two-thirds of the Serengeti ecosystem is protected in game reserves, parks, and conservation areas. The northern extension of the ecosystem falls within the 540-square-mile Massai Mara National Reserve. Just outside the southeastern boundary of Serengeti National Park lies Ngorongoro Crater, which does not fall within the Serengeti ecosystem. Close to one fifth of Africa's roughly 10 million large mammals live in Serengeti and these surrounding areas.
The Serengeti has supported both wildlife and pastoral human societies for over 2,500 years. The Maasai have been Serengeti pastoralists for at least four centuries; five other ethnic groups also share the Serengeti ecosystem. The Maasai have been long warriors who raid cattle form other tribes. They believe that God gave them all the cattle on Earth, so these raids are more like repossession than stealing to them. The Maasai are not typically hunters, although young warriors occasionally may kill lions or buffalo to prove their bravery. Their diet consists mainly of milk, plants (including grains), and herbs. Cattle blood is an important part of their traditional diet, and they occasionally kill a goat or cow for meat.
The Maasai adapted well to the Serengeti, developing a system of communal property and seasonal rotation of grazing lands, with certain pastures using only during droughts. The Maasai, who originally occupied land— Maasailand—extending form northern Kenya to central Tanganyika (which became Tanzania in 1964) were moved several times during the process of colonization in the twentieth century. They eventually were settled in the semi-arid land in the southern portion of the Serengeti ecosystem. Seven protected areas were established in Maasailand between the late 1940s and 1970: Nairobi, Amboseli, and Tsavo National Parks, and Masai mara National Reserve in Kenya, and Serengeti, Tarangire and Lake Manyara National Parks in Tanzania. A few more parks have been added since 1970.
