The Wildlife
There have been 115 species of mammal recorded in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The two main areas for game-viewing, apart from the crater, are the short-grass plains west of the Gol Mountains, northwest of Ngorongoro Crater, and the surroundings of Lake Ndutu close to the border with Serengeti National Park. The two areas become the feeding and breeding ground for over 2 million animals during the rainy season as they support the great annual wildebeest migration that spans the Serengeti ecosystem. From around December to May (depending on the rains), over one million wildebeests and thousands of zebras and gazelles move south to calve in the short-grass plains around Ndutu straddle the Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park.
Elephants, elands, hartebeests, and endangered rhinos are among the residents of the crater. There are also resident zebras and wildebeests in the crater that do not take part in the annual migration. Hippos are found in the permanent freshwater pools and the swamps in the crater. Other non-migratory herbivorous mammals found in the Conservation Area include buffalos, waterbucks, warthogs, kudus, and other antelope species. Giraffes live in Lake Ndutu, where acacia trees are abundant.
The carnivores in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area include lions, cheetahs, hyenas, leopards, jackals, serval cats, and endangered wild hunting dogs.
There are over 550 recorded species of birds in the Conservation Area; some are resident, and others are migratory. Lake Magadi, a salt lake on the floor of the crater, is often inhabited by thousands of lesser flamingos and other water birds. These birds can also be observed around Lake Ndutu and Empakaai Crater Lake.
The forests of Ngorongoro are also abundant with birds, including species of turaco and hornbill. Raptors such as the goshawk and harrier are common on the plains of the Conservation Area.
Ngorongoro Crater
Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest intact and unfilled volcanic caldera and is indeed the flagship tourism attraction of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Measuring an area of 260 square kilometres and extending about 20km in diameter, the crater is actually a huge caldera of a volcano that collapsed to a depth of 610m about three million years ago. Over the course of time, streams of water made their way down the crater to form little ponds, and vegetation developed all over, attracting a wide range of wild animals. The crater is host to over 25,000 animals, including populations of large mammals such as elephants, buffaloes, elands, wildebeests, zebras, gazelles, hippos, and rhinos, as well as such carnivores as lions, hyenas, jackals, and cheetahs. The ponds or rather small lakes on the floor of the crater also host a wide range of water birds, including flamingoes and pelicans. Away from the crater floor, the forests on the crater rim are home to leopards, reedbuck, warthogs, and forest birds to complete a natural zoo, and Africa's ultimate destination to see the "Big Five" (lion, elephant, rhino, leopard and buffalo).
Many animals stay in the crater for a significant proportion of their lives, but others move out and may return again.
There are nine craters in the Conservation Area, of which Ngorongoro Crater is the biggest and most stunning. Before it collapsed, geologists estimate, its height was about 4,587m above sea level.
The stunning landscape of Ngorongoro Crater, combined with its spectacular concentration of wildlife, is one of the greatest natural wonders of the planet. The crater was voted one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa in February 2013 by the organisation Seven Natural Wonders, based in the United States, which had conducted a campaign since 2008 to determine Africa's most phenomenal natural features.
Olduvai Gorge
Olduvai Gorge (sometimes spelt Oldupai) is the most famous archaeological location in East Africa and has become an essential stop for travellers to Ngorongoro or Serengeti. It is located about 40km northwest of Ngorongoro Crater, just a few kilometres off the main Serengeti road.
Olduvai Gorge stretches about 50km and is up to 90m deep. Research at the Gorge began more than a century ago, producing a wealth of archaeological and palaeontological data to study some critical phases of early human evolution.
The first European known to have seen Olduvai Gorge was a German butterfly collector, Professor Wilhelm Kattwinkle. In his notes in 1911, he described Olduvai as containing "the book of life", and he took back to Berlin a considerable number of fossils, including the teeth of an extinct three-toed horse known as Hipparion. However, Olduvai was made famous by the excavations over the middle of the last century by the palaeontologist Louis Leakey and his wife, Mary Leakey.
Louis Leakey first visited Olduvai Gorge in 1931. He and Mary discovered Zinjanthropus boiserie in 1959, the oldest significantly intact hominid fossil from Olduvai Gorge. This skull, plus other archaeological finds from Olduvai Gorge, are housed in the national museum in Dar es Salaam.
Bones of hominids belonging to the Homo lineage, including home habilis, Homo erectus,andHomo sapiens, have also been excavated at Olduvai and hundreds of other fossilised bones and stone tools dating back millions of years, leading palaeontologists to conclude that humans evolved in Africa.
At the edge of Olduvai Gorge, there is a small museum, the Olduvai Gorge Museum, which exhibits numerous fossils and stone tools of our hominid ancestors, and skeletons of many extinct animals excavated in the gorge. The museum was founded by Mary Leakey, and it is dedicated to the appreciation and understanding of the Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli fossil sites.
Apart from the exhibitions inside the museum, there are also outdoor lecture areas where the museum curators give orientation presentations to visitors. At the museum, one can also plan a guided tour down the gorge.
Source: Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority