15 July 2004

The world’s greatest wildlife spectacle arrived in force in the Maasai Mara this week, as a light rain sweeping across the reserve’s central and southern plains triggered a mass movement of wildebeest and zebra from the northern Serengeti. The single day’s rain marked an almost instant change in the migration, which has been threatening to spill over the Tanzanian border for the past three weeks.

Since the beginning of the week, the Central, Burrungat and Meta plains have been teeming with an estimated 500,000-600,000 wildebeest and zebra – nearly a third of the entire population. A second group of about 100,000 zebra has now separated from the main herds and is heading east onto the Posee Plains.

Meanwhile, hundreds of wildebeest have been crossing into the Mara Conservancy at four points on the Mara River near Lookout Hill, prompting a feeding frenzy among the resident Nile crocodiles. The Loita population of wildebeest and zebra continue to cross at the Paradise crossing point with several groups of Thomson’s gazelle – many of which have already succumbed to the crocs’ waiting jaws.

As we wait for the remainder of the herds gathering on the Serengeti plains to traverse the border, their advance guard is about to cross the Talek River near Mara Intrepids towards Rhino Ridge. Across the central Mara, the plains are alive with the telltale chorus of grunts that shows the greatest movement of mammals on Earth is finally in full swing...