Where can I see the great migration of African animals?

There should be many friends interested in matters related to animal migration. The following small series will tell you where you can see these besides Kenya.

Introduction 1. First of all, if you go to Kenya to see the Great Migration, it must be July and August in summer, because only in these two months will animals migrate from Tanzania to Kenya to eat grass, and at the same time they need to cross a river of death, which is later called crossing heaven.

2. Is it very hot in Kenya in summer? Sorry, you went to Africa for the summer! The average annual temperature in Kenya is 27 degrees. In July and August, most cities in North China, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities are experiencing hot summers, but Kenya has ushered in the coolest month of the year. Every year, Kenya will maintain a comfortable and cool temperature from June when the dry season comes until 10.

3. Didn't you see the great migration except in summer? No! Is there no place to watch the Great Migration except Kenya? No! To solve this misunderstanding, we first need to explain what is the great migration of animals in East Africa.

The Great Migration of Wild Animals in East Africa is also called the Great Migration of wildebeests. Generally speaking, millions of wildebeests, hundreds of thousands of zebras and antelopes regularly migrate from Serengeti Reserve in Tanzania to Masai Mara National Park in Kenya every year in search of water and herbivores. After reaching the finish line, due to climate change, in just two or three months, the expedition army consisting of more than two million herbivorous wild animals will return to Serengeti after painstakingly pursuing the grassland again. The whole cycle can be called migration cycle.

It can be clearly seen from the migration map above that the great migration of animals only takes up 20% of the time in Kenya (mainly in July and August), and the other 80% of the time is in the Serengeti grassland in Tanzania, which is the part below the red dotted line. Then why do people only know about the Great Migration of Kenya? The main reason is that in July and August, animals arrived at the junction of Tanzania and Kenya: the Mara River. The migration team crossing the Mara River is also called: crossing heaven. Mara River is home to a large number of crocodiles and hippos. They also know that animals will migrate here at this time, and then natural selection will be staged, and the fittest will survive!

A river separated by yin and yang! This is because the scene is so cruel and heroic, and the repeated reports of news documentaries have led to the main scenes of animal migration that many people understand. It is also the main reason why more than 200,000 people from all over the world flock to the Mara River in Kenya to watch animal migration every July and August!

But animals will only stay here for about 2 months, because the area of Masai Mara is about 1500 square kilometers, which is only about one tenth of Serengeti grassland. Nearly 3 million animals ate almost all the grass in Masai Mara in two months. As the rain moves south, herbivores will cross the Mara River south again and enter Serengeti to start a new round of grass-seeking journey. During the long journey, animals will pass through the three main habitats of Serengeti-grassland in the south and woodland in the north, as well as the Grumiti River, Celera River and Mara River in the north.

Compared with Masai Mara in Kenya, Tanken is undoubtedly an animal paradise. There are many animals, and there is a great chance of meeting cats. However, as reported too much, Kenya is currently developing mass tourism, with low consumption, developed infrastructure and more hotels of different grades and types. Due to the influx of tourists in recent years, the commercialization of Kenya's tourism industry has become more and more obvious. In order to please tourists, tour guides trample on grasslands at will. It is often reported that the most spectacular paradise crossing can be seen in Kenya, because the banks of the Mara River in Kenya are steep, the riverbed is narrow, and the river is sharp and deep, and the scene is spectacular. But at the same time, you should also be prepared to watch this spectacular scene with nearly 20W guests. If you want to take pictures, a large group of people will make it difficult for you to take pictures. July and August are the peak tourist seasons in Kenya. There are many cars in the park, and sometimes you can even see a dozen cars around the lions.

At present, Tanzania's tourism industry is dominated by "not developing at the expense of the environment".

Tanzania attaches more importance to animal protection than Kenya and strictly limits the number of tourists in Serengeti National Park. And strictly limit the number and grade of hotels. The number of hotels is small and the price is relatively expensive. Tanzania even closed the passage between Masai Mara and Serengeti at 1977! This is the gate of Shahe. As a result, Kenyan tourists cannot directly enter Serengeti from Masai Mara, so they have to detour Arusha or Mwanza, which takes 12 hours. In this way, most tourists who go to Kenya will not spend more time and money and make a special trip to Serengeti.

The area of Serengeti is 8- 10 times larger than that of horse racing. It is a more primitive and pure wildlife hunting experience and a deep photography experience in East Africa. You can see the most animals and species, and have more opportunities to see the five African tyrants: lions, bison, cheetahs, rhinoceroses and elephants. The species and quantity of animals in Serengeti National Park are second to none in the world. Less tourists, better experience, just like hunting the vast African grassland alone, the hotel's standards are also relatively high.

Tips:

So how do we choose to go to Kenya or Tanzania?

Actually, there is no standard answer here. Every country has its own characteristics. I suggest that you can choose according to the budget and time!

The following are the differences between the two countries:

Advantages of going to Kenya: 1. Spectacular animals cross the river. 2. The price is lower. There are many tour groups in the summer vacation, so it is easy to choose and arrange.

Disadvantages of going to Kenya: 1. There are many summer groups and people, so it may be difficult to take clean photos. Lions and leopards still have more opportunities to see in Serengeti.

Advantages of going to Tanzania: 1. You can see the great migration of animals almost 365 days a year. (at the border of the two countries in July and August) 2. You can see the most animals and species, and the species and quantity of animals in Serengeti National Park are second to none in the world. 3. Fewer tourists, better experience. It's like hunting alone on the vast African grassland. 4. The level and grade of roads, communication and hotel services in Serengeti National Park are higher than those in Masai Mara.

Disadvantages of going to Tanzania: expensive, the main reason! The same tour time is expected to be 30% or even 50% more expensive than Kenya.

Precautions before departure in Tanzania 1. visa

Arrive in Tanzania with a visa on arrival. Just provide a passport with a validity period of more than 6 months, a printed e-ticket, and a yellow book with yellow fever vaccine in the travel itinerary, Tanzania, and the cost is 50 dollars. Upon arrival, fill in the "entry card" (only the entry card is needed, no other cards or certificates are needed); Fill in "tourism" for the purpose of going to Tanzania, otherwise you will be required to apply for a business visa or temporary work permit; Please fill in the length of stay in Tanzania according to the round-trip ticket.

2. Yellow face

Tanzania must have an international vaccination certificate (yellow book) for yellow fever epidemic prevention, which can be vaccinated at the international travel health care center in domestic cities. Hubei International Travel Health Care Center Address: No.453, Luoshi Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan. Vaccination is free, valid on 10 day after vaccination and valid on 10 year.

3. Currency

Tanzania's currency is shilling. When converted into US dollars, the conversion ratio is about 1: 2 100. (You must bring US dollars after the 2003 edition) In addition, you must exchange a certain amount of US dollars 1 in China for small expenses. Tanzania is a tipping country. Baggage porters, security guards and room cleaners spend about $65,438 +0-2 each time.

4. Time difference

Tanzania adopts time 3, which is 5 hours later than Beijing time. That is, noon Beijing time 12 is 7 am East Africa time.

It is recommended that important travel documents such as equipment (including photographic equipment) 1, passport copy, photos, air tickets and travel to travel itinerary be backed up and stored separately.

2. In Tanzania (especially in nature reserves), there is a great temperature difference between day and night and the light is very strong, so quick-drying T-shirts, leather clothes, trousers, coats, sun hats, sunglasses, sunscreen and magic headscarves are all necessary.

3. Many electronic devices, English conversion plugs and multi-port USB charging cable boards are recommended.

4. Anti-mosquito products must be brought. There is mosquito repellent cream for the army over there on the yellow needle. Very good, I recommend buying it.

5. In terms of photographic equipment, do what you can. If conditions permit, take the best camera you can find, and the lens should have at least one telephoto and one telephoto. It's best not to change the lens in the open air when shooting in the wild, not to mention the time is fleeting, and there is no time to change the lens at all (here is a hint, make an agreement with the team members, whoever takes the details will take the big scene, and finally enjoy the photo * * to avoid the problem of changing the lens).

6, the wider the wide angle, the better, the longer the telephoto, the bigger the memory card! Tripod is not recommended. SAFARI spends most of her time in the car, so she doesn't have many opportunities to use it. On the contrary, it is suggested to bring a light bean bag, because we all took pictures in the car when we were in the Mara River, so we couldn't get off. Stability with bean bags is the only way.

Animal Illustrations Before you go to African Wild National Park, you must look at the following animal illustrations. You can recognize them and call them famous!

First of all, you must know the five African tyrants.

Detailed description of large animals

Detailed explanation of herbivores

Birds explain animals in detail.

Other animals

Animal shooting skills 1. Wide-angle exaggeration: If the animal has a chance, it will take the opportunity to adjust the lens to the widest state in front of you and leave a big picture for it.

2. Silhouette shooting: When shooting, put the horizon very low and leave a lot of white space for the sky. Can show the silhouette effect of animals. Animals must be in the background of strong light ratio to take a silhouette effect.

3. Diagonal composition: At the moment of crossing the river, the diagonal gives people a spectacular vision.

4. Contrast composition: blur the grass behind and highlight the lion. One far and one near, one high and one low, one big and one small, one virtual and one real.

5. Symmetrical composition:

Generally, as long as the water surface is relatively calm, it can be photographed. However, the composition should not be too compact, so we must leave appropriate space to explain the shooting environment.

Understand the general photography skills of animal habits and local environment

In Tanzania, although wild animals can be seen everywhere, their active characteristics determine that shooting will not be very smooth, and wonderful moments are often missed in the blink of an eye. Therefore, to shoot wild animals, we must first fully understand their habits. Some knowledge of nature know when they rest, eat and move. Secondly, we need to know something about the living environment of animals, so as to choose the required photographic equipment and set the camera shooting parameters in advance according to the terrain and lighting conditions of the shooting location.

The biggest difference between shooting wild animals and other subjects is that the subjects are uncontrollable. Animals can't be asked to cooperate with shooting, and it is difficult to guide and communicate. You can only observe carefully, wait passively, and find the right time to shoot. So every wonderful picture of wild animals is hard to come by.

Serengeti National Park Serengeti National Park is located in the west of the Great Rift Valley in East Africa.

At the west-northwest of Arusha130km, a part of the narrow strip extends westward to Lake Victoria for 8km and northward to the Kenyan border. 1940 and become a protected area; 1929, 228,600 hectares in the middle of Serengeti were designated as hunting reserves; 195 1 built a national park; 1959 is extended. As the Serengeti-Ngorongoro Biological Reserve in the Man and Ecology Program of UNESCO, it was internationally recognized and listed in the World Heritage List in the same year.

Most people who come to Serengeti will be completely fascinated by the spectacular sight of animal migration. In fact, what really fascinates Serengeti is its entire ecosystem, including migratory animals and animals that don't migrate all the year round. How many places are there in Serengeti? No matter when you go, you can always enjoy the fascinating wildlife scenery. There are also many places that are also good places for wildlife sightseeing all year round, and there are also many permanent residents who do not participate in migration, such as

lion

And cheetahs. For tourists who love Serengeti, even in the dry season, the barren and desolate land on the southern plain is full of charm, because they can just study the survival strategies of wild animals living here.

The annual animal migration on the Serengeti grassland is the greatest natural landscape in the world. Animals migrate to find water and pasture. From the air, the migration scene is particularly spectacular-about 6.5438+0.5 million wildebeests and zebras will cruise around the Serengeti on a large scale every year, and they will sweep the grassland like a huge rumbling lawn mower, bringing an average of 450 tons of feces to the earth every day. In addition to wildebeests and zebras, there are about 300,000 Thomson gazelles and 30,000 Grant gazelles on this migration road. The expanding migration team has formed a shocking huge herd.

For an ordinary tourist, no matter you come to Wan Li from any corner of the world, it will be generous and hospitable to you. But the Serengeti is too big, so in different seasons, different routes, different weather and even different drivers, you will see different natural scenes and meet different animals unexpectedly. No matter what you see is all of the five African countries, what you catch is the spectacular scene without great migration, and what you capture is the thrilling scene without the law of the jungle. I believe I will be shocked, because this is the wild world.

20 17.07.22

Canon 5d markivef 70-300mmf/4-5.6L.

300mm？ /8 1/400ISO 1000ev

Zebra and wildebeest are the most common when you come to Serengeti prairie, and the scene in the photo is the most common scene on the grassland.

Ngorongoro Volcano More than 2 million years ago, a volcano in the Great Rift Valley in northern Tanzania suddenly erupted, leaving a crater of 19 km, hence the name Ngorongoro. It is the second largest crater in the world. Over time, it gradually formed a complete ecosystem, providing habitats for tens of millions of animals. It is also called "the Garden of Eden in Africa". It is firmly in the shape of a bowl. Animals live at the bottom of the bowl year after year. Unlike Serengeti animals, they are always on the move. For the animals in Ngoro crater, this is their home and they will never leave from birth to death. There are 25,000-30,000 animals living at the bottom of the crater. Besides zebras, gazelles, wildebeests, leopards, jackals and wildebeests, there are a large number of black rhinos.

Lake Manyala Manyala National Park is located in northern Tanzania. The entrance is in Arusha.

(Arusha) West. Lake Manyala, which extends 50 kilometers at the bottom of the rust-colored and golden cliff in the 600-meter-deep East African Rift Valley, is a gem. Hemingway once praised, "This is

The cutest place in Africa. Manyala can watch animals intensively, which is a virtual miniature landscape of Tanzania Wildlife Park.

Manyala is the best place to learn about the life of birds in Tanzania. There are more than 400 recorded species of birds, even for the first time in Africa.

Visitors can see 100 kinds of birds in a day. The most striking birds include thousands of pink flamingos that migrate permanently, and other large waterfowl, such as pelicans, cormorants and storks.

If you need to shoot the details of flamingos, it is recommended to take more than 400 lenses.

Kilimanjaro Kilimanjaro International Airport is located between Moxi and Arusha in Arusha. It is one of the three international airports owned by Tanzania (the other two are Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar).

)。 Africa

Mount Kilimanjaro (5895 meters above sea level), the first peak, is located in Moxi, a town bordering Kenya in the northernmost part of Tanzania. It is the watershed between Tanzania and Kenya, the highest mountain range in Africa, and also a volcano and snowy mountain. The main body of this mountain extends nearly 80 kilometers from east to west. It is mainly composed of three extinct volcanoes, Kibo, Marwenxi and Sheila, covering an area of 756 square kilometers. Its central volcanic cone is Hulu Peak, with an altitude of 5,895 meters, which is the highest point in Africa.

Kilimanjaro is called "the roof of Africa" and many geographers call it ".

King of Africa. "The main body of the mountain inclines to the plain below with a typical volcanic curve. The height of this plain is about 900 meters above sea level. The top of the mountain is covered with snow all year round, but the phenomenon of glacier melting is very serious. If you want to climb the roof of Africa, you must go to Moxi town and start climbing from here. After checking some information, for a donkey friend who has not received professional mountaineering training,

Kilimanjaro is the only peak in several continents that is likely to reach the top.

Tips:

Hiking tip: In several countries on the equator of Africa, the temperature is relatively high all the year round, but it is cooler at night. If you are going to climb a mountain, your clothes should be ready to go through temperature level 2. It is necessary to prepare quick-drying series short (long) sleeve shirts, quick-drying pants, jungle hats, raincoats that can be disassembled into shorts and other equatorial equipment, as well as sweat-wicking thermal underwear, windproof fleece underwear, assault underwear, down jackets, thick socks (at least 2 pairs), thin gloves and down gloves. Need waterproof hiking shoes and sandals. 1200 grams of cashmere is enough for sleeping bags, because the 4700-meter assault camp can live in wooden houses. Sunglasses, sunscreen and sunscreen lipstick are of course essential.