The Serengeti National Park in Tanzania is nearly six thousand square miles in size and is home to every plains animal including the ‘big five’.Its bi-annual migration of animals north and south chasing the rains involve the movement of six million hooves and is unlike anything else seen on planet earth.With these six million hooves stomping its surface, dropping dung to be fertilized by the ensuing rains, its bone dry, threadbare grassland will spring to life after next season’s rainfall.And, as the animals smell moisture, they know that fresh grasses await them on arrival.This cycle has been repeating itself for millennia.
Not only do 1.5 million animals thrive in this cyclic environment, but as one might surmise, the dung beetle does extremely well in such a nutrient rich environment, with researchers categorizing at least one hundred variations of this beetle within the park lands.
Stretching from the The Great Rift Valley in the East to Lake Victoria in the West, to the contiguous Masai Mara game reserve in the North, as far as Ngorongoro Crater in the south, The Serengeti represents one of Nature’s finest treasures. Despite the struggles, travails, political instability, corruption, tribal conflicts, poverty, and disease that plague most of Africa, the respect for, and management of, the Serengeti Ecosystem is recognized by the governments of the countries in which the plains exist, donations to support the park come from all over the world, a world that solemnly believes that the marvels of the Serengeti truly belong to all mankind.Recently, man has done well in his efforts to preserve such a wonderful place, and to protect the animals that live in a place like none other on earth.
Camera Details: Canon EOS-1D Mark II(click image to enlarge)
Shot details: f/3.5; 1/640 sec; ISO 100; 3744×5616 Pixels
Focal Length 73mm; EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS USM
Camera Details: Canon EOS-1D Mark II