If Kenya’s Maasai Mara is where the Great Migration puts on its most famous show, Tanzania is where the whole thing actually begins: on the short-grass plains of the southern Serengeti, where half a million wildebeest calves are born within weeks of each other every year.
The calving season: the migration’s real starting point
From roughly January to March, the herds gather on the nutrient-rich short-grass plains around Ndutu and the southern Serengeti to give birth. Around half a million calves are born each year, and remarkably, about 80% of all females give birth within the same two-to-three-week window, typically in February; a deliberate survival strategy: with so many vulnerable newborns on the ground at once, predators simply cannot eat them all, and most calves survive by sheer weight of numbers rather than individual luck. It is also, unavoidably, one of the most intense predator-prey periods anywhere in Africa, with lion, hyena and cheetah all concentrating around the plains.
The long move north
As the southern plains dry out, the herds begin moving: through the western corridor around May and June, where smaller but still dramatic crossings of the Grumeti River happen with a fraction of the Mara’s visitor numbers, and then on through the central and northern Serengeti toward the Kenyan border, arriving at the Mara River around July. The reverse move south begins around November as the short rains return, closing a circuit that covers 800 to 1,600km a year.
Ngorongoro: the year-round backdrop
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area, bordering the southern Serengeti, holds dense resident wildlife year-round regardless of migration timing, making it a natural pairing with a calving-season safari, or a strong standalone choice at any time of year. See our National Parks of Tanzania guide for how it fits alongside the Serengeti and Tarangire.
Planning around the calendar
Because where the herds are depends on the time of year, your camp or lodge choice should follow the calendar rather than the other way around: see our Accommodation in Tanzania guide for how lodges across the Serengeti map to each season, and Airstrips in Tanzania for how quickly you can move between areas as the herds do. For the river crossings themselves, see our Mara River Crossings page, and for how Kenya’s side of the same migration compares, see Great Migration in Kenya.
Plan a safari around The Great Migration in Tanzania: Where It All Begins
Tell us your dates and what you most want to see, and we’ll time your safari to match it as closely as nature allows. Talk to us, or browse our safari packages to see how a migration-timed itinerary is put together.
