Great Migration Archive
On Safari: Among the Great Herds
Posted by jimheck in Great Migration, OnSafari, Serengeti on April 12, 2013
It was Bingo in Barafu today as we drove into the locus of the great migration, probably seeing a couple hundred thousand animals before the day was over. This is always the easiest time of the year to find the largest single migratory group of wildebeest. It’s never the most dramatic time (which is the [...]
On Safari: Into the Wilds
Posted by jimheck in Great Migration, OnSafari, Serengeti on April 11, 2013
This is one of my favorite days on safari, as we spend most of our time off-roading in the far southeastern corner of the Serengeti positioning ourselves to find the great herds in the next few days. We left the crater just after breakfast, and there was heavy mist on the rim as we drove [...]
Delayed With Little Compensation!
Posted by jimheck in Great Migration, Weather on September 24, 2012
The great wildebeest migration just lost its Kenyan visa. Normally around a million wildebeest would still be in Kenya’s Maasai Mara at this time of the year. The Mara is the northernmost point in the 1200-mile roundtrip migration, an elliptical circuit that historically remains in the Mara from around July – October. Not this year. [...]
Hot Migration Topic
Posted by jimheck in Great Migration, Mara, Planning Travel, Politics, Serengeti on July 24, 2012
Is it really such a burning issue: why are the wildebeest so late? I’ve often experienced them crossing from Tanzania to Kenya even later, sometimes not until August. Normally, though, the herds cross the two river border that separates Tanzania from Kenya by mid- to late June, so we’re a month behind. This year it’s [...]
Way South of Scott Pelley
Posted by jimheck in Arts and Culture, Environment, Great Migration, Mara, Serengeti on January 24, 2012
Sixty Minutes rebroadcast of “Into the Wild” Sunday night caused many of us experts serious angst. Basically three wonderfully short thumbnails of things wild in East Africa were riveted with inaccuracy. I’m sure that when a professor of dentistry speeds past a billboard for toothpaste he winces. Nothing wrong really with telling people they need [...]
Storms Move The Serengeti
Posted by jimheck in Ecology, Great Migration, Serengeti, Weather on December 2, 2011
Climate change is slowly, steadily changing the ecology of the world’s most spectacular big game wilderness, the Serengeti. For a visitor, it’s nothing short of fantastic. For animals it’s terrifying. For the planet it’s just too complicated yet to say. The roughly 7000 sq. miles of the Serengeti/Mara/Ngorongoro wilderness is the greatest wildlife area on [...]
Mustering the Migration
Posted by jimheck in Great Migration, OnSafari on September 21, 2011
It’s very hard to know how much to push yourself on safari, and it’s difficult for the guide to know how much you really want to. Today we found the migration in northern Tanzania – it was an absolutely Number Ten experience. But it was psychically expensive. We left camp at 815a and we returned [...]
SERENGETI WATCH OUT OF SYNC
Posted by jimheck in Great Migration, Politics, Serengeti on June 27, 2011
Contrary to Serengeti Watch’s weekend retraction that the Serengeti Highway had been scrapped, it has been scrapped. SW now needs to be as clear as it’s demanding the Tanzanian government be. Friday I joined the world, including SW in announcing the Serengeti highway had been scrapped. It has been, but a retraction by SW with [...]
Victory in the Serengeti!
Posted by jimheck in Economy, Foreign Aid, Great Migration, Serengeti on June 24, 2011
As I’ve been suggesting for a year, the “Serengeti Highway” will not be built through the park, but will be built right up to the eastern edge, and the goal of reaching the Lake Victoria port of Mwanza will be pursued as a new southern road from Arusha. Wednesday, the Tanzanian government released a letter [...]
Widely Wild Wrongly Written Wildebeest Writings
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Great Migration, Mara, Wildlife Management, Wildlife Research on June 3, 2011
Widely circulated reports about a crash in Kenya’s Maasai Mara wildlife are (1) premature, (2) likely false and (3) infuriating. PS (4) I’m fed up with western news sources about Africa. Unless it’s another apocalypse, it isn’t published. Many of you truly concerned wildlife enthusiasts have sent me the link to the bad BBC story [...]
Poorly Guided Tourists Hide Wilde
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Great Migration, Serengeti on January 14, 2011
This week the Huffington Post said the “migration was delayed.” True. It was delayed. About as long as getting stuck in Chicago traffic delays a dinner engagement. “I can assure you the raingods are smiling,” the owner/manager of Ndutu lodge emailed me this morning. “The animals have streamed back onto the plains!… Everything right now [...]
Top Ten 2010 Stories
Posted by jimheck in Arts and Culture, Corruption, Culture, Early Man, Ecology, Economy, Foreign Aid, Great Migration, History, Planning Travel, Poaching, Politics, Poverty, Serengeti, Sudan, Terrorism, Tourism Trends, Uganda, Uncategorized, War on December 31, 2010
East Africa is booming, so many of the stories of 2010 were terrifically good news. But there were the tragedies as well like the Kampala bombings. Below I try to put the year in perspective with my top ten stories for East Africa for 2010. 1. Populace democracy grows. 2. Terrorism grows, as does the [...]
Don’t Dumb Down the Migration
Posted by jimheck in African Films, Great Migration, Serengeti on November 16, 2010
The filming is fantastic! But NatGeo cable shouldn’t have tried to vie with Dancing with the Stars. They’ve really dumbed down what could have been an outstanding work. I suppose it’s like anything in the media, today. All that’s offered are sound bites, beautiful pictures, and short sentences, all of which reduce the complex into [...]
Oh those Scandalous Wildebeest!
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Great Migration, Mara, Serengeti on October 28, 2010
Reports in the media that the great wildebeest migration this year has made a wrong turn and surprised ecologists is absurd. There is nothing anomalous about the migration this year. The East African newspaper reported Monday that “A change in the spectacular wildebeest migration schedule in the great Serengeti-Mara ecosystem has caught ecologists offguard.” Using [...]
Electing a Serengeti Highway Auction
Posted by jimheck in Corruption, Great Migration, Politics, Serengeti on September 28, 2010
The imminent election of a formerly disgraced Tanzanian politician may determine the route of the controversial Serengeti Highway. Tanzania’s disgraced former Prime Minister launched his political comeback yesterday by vowing to push through the Serengeti highway despite environmental objections. But in typical Tanzania PoliSpeak, Lowassa left open which route he supports. I think the man [...]