Great Migrations
The river crossings that make the wildebeest migration look impossible
Huge herds compress into crossing points where movement, dust, water, predators, and panic collide.
WildebeestSerengeti-Mara ecosystem, Tanzania and KenyaAnnual migration
Video: National Geographic. Embedded from the original YouTube source.
How big?The wider migration involves enormous herds moving through the ecosystem.
Why does it happen?The herds move in response to seasonal rainfall and changing access to fresh grazing and water.
The famous river-crossing videos are one dramatic chapter in a much larger annual movement through the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem.
Large herds follow shifting resources, and bottlenecks at rivers create the dense scenes that travel widely online.
What to know
- The migration is a continuous ecosystem-scale movement rather than one single crossing.
- River crossings are among the most dramatic and heavily filmed moments.
- Exact timing varies with environmental conditions.
Good questions
What people usually want to know
Why do wildebeest migrate?
They move through the ecosystem following seasonal rainfall, water, and fresh grazing.