A herd of Blue Wildebeest, aka White Bearded Wildebeest, Connochaetes taurinus, migrating through long Red Oat Grass in Masai Mara National reserve in Kenya, kicking up dust as they walk.
Every year, the Great Migration sees over a million Blue Wildebeest, with large numbers of Zebra as well as Grant’s Gazelle, Thompson’s Gazelle, Eland and Impala follow the fresh grass growth in an approximately clockwise route round the Serengeti National Park in northern Tanzania, and in the much smaller Masai Mara National Reserve in southern Kenya. These two wildlife reserves are contiguous, with the national border dividing them but not hindering the movement of the ungulates.
The timing of when the Wildebeest are in the Mara can only be approximate. It isn’t an exact science, as it is affected by the timings of the rains, which encourage the growth of the grass. So I’ve been in the Mara in early July when there were many herbivores present, and I’ve been in the Mara in mid-July when it seemed all but deserted, and I did a lot of birding in the area. One year I was even there when the migration began. I was staying at Keekorok Lodge, the oldest lodge in the Mara, only about 19km from the border. On our first early-morning drive, we saw very few herbivores. We went back to the lodge for breakfast, and when we went out again after breakfast, there were already hundreds of wildebeest and zebras pouring past the boundary of the Lodge grounds.
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I also have a range of photos of Wildebeest available to license as stock photos from iStock.
