Where is the Serengeti National Park?

The Serengeti National Park is a Tanzanian National Park in the Serengeti ecosystem in the Mata and Simiyu regions. It is famous for its annual migration of over 1.5 million white-bearded (brindled) wildebeest and 250,000 zebra and for the numerous Nile crocodile and honey badger.

The Maasai people had been grazing their livestock in the plains of Eastern Mara Region, which they named "endless plains", for around 200 years when the first European explorer, Austrian Oscar Baumann, visited the area in 1892. The name "Serengeti" is an approximation of the word used by the Maasai to describe the area, siringet, which means "the place where the lands run forever".

The first American to enter the Serengeti, Stewart Edward White, first recorded his explorations in the northern Serengeti in 1914. He returned in the 1920s and camped in the area around Seroneta for 3 months. During this time, he and his companions shot over 50 lions.

The hunting of lions made them scarce, so the British colonial administration made a partial game reserve of 800 acres (3.2km2) in the area in 1921, and a full one in 1929. These actions were the basis for Serengeti National Park, established in 1951.

It gained more fame after the book and film Serengeti Shall Not Die, produced by Bernard Grzimek and his son Michael in 1959, widely known as one of the earliest and most important pieces on nature conservation.

The British later evicted the Maasai from the park in 1959 and relocated them.