Serengeti national park covers 14,750 square kilometres of grassland plains, savanna, riverine forest, and woodlands. The park lies in northwestern Tanzania, bordered to the north by the Kenyan border, where it is continuous with the Maasai Mara National Reserve. To the southeast of the park is the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, to the southwest lies Maswa Game Reserve, to the west are the Ikorongo and Grumeti Game Reserves, and to the northeast and east lies the Loliondo Game Control Area. Together, these areas form the larger Serengeti ecosystem. It is characterized by vast plains, savannah, wooded hills, large termite mounds, rivers, and acacia woodlands.
The spectacular wildlife witnessed in the park generally refers to the great Wildebeest migration where a million wildebeests chase green lands across the rolling plains of Serengeti in Tanzania and Masai Mara in Kenya. Sometimes they are seen in 40 square kilometres long columns migrating across the rivers to the north, over a distance of 1,000 square kilometres, after spending three weeks of mating and giving birth to 8000 calves daily. This migration and life cycle creation is an annual feature witnessed in the park. This migration is in unison with 200,000 zebra and 300,000 Thomson’s gazelle in search of grazing pastures, aptly described as “six million hooves pound the open plains”.
Other mammals seen here are buffaloes, elephants, giraffe, large number of elands, topis, kongonis, impalas, and Grant’s gazelles. The predators inhabiting the park are lions, leopards, jackals, spotted hyenas, rock hyrax and several cats. Reptiles include agama lizards and crocodiles. Bird species recorded are more than 500, which include ostrich and secretary bird. 100 varieties of dung beetle are also reported.