Calving Season in the Serengeti
Calving season on the southern Serengeti plains around Ndutu — when roughly half a million wildebeest are born in three weeks, and why it draws the densest predator action of the year.
Photo: Dawn Westveld / Unsplash
- ✓Calving peaks in February on the short-grass plains near Ndutu, on the Ngorongoro edge.
- ✓The concentration of newborns brings lions, cheetahs and hyenas in for the most intense predator viewing of the year.
- ✓Open, treeless plains make this the best window for cheetahs hunting in the clear.
Why the south, why now
The southern short-grass plains are some of the richest grazing in Africa, fed by volcanic ash from the Ngorongoro highlands. The herds gather here to give birth because the open ground lets them see predators coming and the new grass fuels lactating mothers. In a window of roughly three weeks, around half a million calves arrive.
For visitors, calving season is a study in life and death on the plain. Predators follow the food, so this is when you are most likely to watch a cheetah hunt across open ground or a lion pride working a herd. It is raw, and it is unforgettable.
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