NGORONGORO CRATER CONSERVATION AREA:
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is an extensive highland area along the eastern arm of the Rift Valley, with the world-renowned Ngorongoro Crater as its focal point. It is not a national park in the strict sense of the word, but the NCA was established to conserve wildlife and other natural resources.
It also safeguards the interests of indigenous people and promotes tourism.
Thus, as you discover and experience more of this unique Tanzania camping safari, have the unique experience of seeing Maasai herdsmen whose cattle graze side by side with the tremendous variety of wildlife found in the area.
Unmatched for its natural variety, there are few places on earth where such a tremendous diversity of landscapes exist inside a region this size.
Apart from its wildlife riches, the NCA is also of great archaeological importance, with the remains of some of mankind’s earliest ancestors discovered in the area.
The largest intact caldera in the world, the Ngorongoro Crater shelters one of the most beautiful wildlife havens anywhere. A permanent population of more than 30 000 animals inhabit a mere 260 km² (100 square miles) in the 600 m (2 000 ft) deep crater, making this one of the few places in Africa where guests stand a great chance of seeing the entire Big Five in the course of a single game drive as you enjoy your Tanzania camping safari.
WILDLIFE AT NGORONGORO CRATER
An estimated 25 000 mammals are resident in the Crater, including large herds of resident wildebeest, 16 highly endangered black rhino and around 70 lions. Nomadic cheetah move in and out of the area and leopard are most often encountered in the Lerai Forest.
Both golden and black-backed jackal are abundant, while the normally shy and nocturnal serval are frequently spotted during daylight hours. Vast numbers of buffalo, zebra and Thomson’s gazelle also occur. Large numbers of both lion and spotted hyena are also resident in the Crater.
ANIMALS AND BIRDS
The 'lost world' of Ngorongoro was home to pigs the size of a hippopotamus, sheep-like beasts with 6-foot (3 metre) horns and three-toed horses. Nowadays is inhabited by about 30,000 animals, of which half are zebra and wildebeest. This is the perfect situation for predators and spotted hyenas and lions lord over this domain.
There are also some leopards, cheetahs and three species of jackals. Tanzania's few remaining black rhino are regularly sighted in the crater, as are large herds of buffalo.
In the lake on the crater floor and in the Ngoitokitok swamps, reside plenty of hippos who remain partially submerged during the day and graze on grass at night.
Although the area sustains a huge variety of species, not all live down in the crater. Some are better adapted to roaming the extensive conservation area surrounding the caldera.
Elephant herds are noticeably absent from the crater floor because the cows and calves tend to prefer the forested highlands. They sometimes appear at the crater rim but only rarely venture down into the grasslands.
Only mature bull elephants roam the crater floor carrying around some massive tusks.
Also absent from the crater are impala, topi and oryx who reside more on the eastern Serengeti plains, but Grant's and Thompson's gazelles appear in the crater in good numbers. Giraffes are also missing from the crater as they favour the umbrella acacia and wait-a-bit thorn trees found higher up.
The salt-whitened shores of Lake Magadi are turned a pastel pink from thousands of flamingoes sifting algae and shrimps from this soda lake. The lake also attracts a myriad other water birds including avocets, plovers and black-winged stilts whose long beaks probe the soft mud.
Seasons
As the rim of the crater is 333 feet (2,235m) above sea level it is cooler at the top than down on the crater floor, where it can get extremely hot.
Rainy Season: Short rains are November and December when it gets hot and humid, and the long rains are from March to May.
Dry Season: typically it is dry from June to October and it can get quite cold during these months on the rim of the crater.
Ngorongoro Crater best Features
• Plains teeming with grazing animals
• Dark maned lions
• Clans of spotted hyena
• Black rhino
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