When is the Wildebeest Migration in the Serengeti?

The Spectacular Great Migration

The vast Serengeti plains and the hills of Kenya’s Masai Mara are the setting for the world’s greatest wildlife spectacle, the 1.5 million animal ungulate (wildebeest) migration. Over 1.4 million wildebeest and 200,000 zebra and gazelle, relentlessly tracked by Africa’s great predators, migrate in a clockwise fashion over 1,800 miles each year in search of rain ripened grass.

Once the ‘short rains’ fall in November and December (sometimes as early as October) the migration moves from Kenya’s Maasai Mara down through the eastern side of Tanzania’s Serengeti into its sweet and fertile southern-grass plains. Here, the wildebeest and other ungulates settle between January and April. In April and May the ‘long’ rains set in and the migration starts moving from the depleted southern plains north to the long grass plains in the western corridor. Large river crossings on the Grumeti and Mara Rivers occur as the migration heads back into Kenya's Maasai Mara - the season dries out and fresh grazing and water can be found in the far north. The Mara is usually at its best in August, September and October.