NGORONGORO CRATER


Ngorongoro Crater is a superb place to view wildlife. The animals are varied and abundant; they are mostly out in the open where they can be easily observed.
They are habituated to people in vehicles. You can observe interesting behaviour better here in the crater than almost anywhere else on earth, for example, births, mating, fighting, hunting.

PLANTS: The crater can be divided into vegetation zones; slopes (dry side and wet side), grassland, marsh, riverine, lakeshore and forest. Conveniently, these zones roughly follow your route. The dominant tree on the descent is the tall Euphorbia bussei (variety kibwezensis) with its fluted fleshy stems. 
ANIMALS: Large mammals- The rich pasture and permanent water of the crater floor supports a resident population of some 20,000- 25,000 large animals. They are by no means confined by the crater walls, and can freely leave; they stay because conditions are favourable. Since most of the crater floor is grassland, grazing animals predominate: gnu, zebra, gazelle, buffalo, eland and Kongoni (Coke’s hartebeest) and warthogs. The swamps and forest provide additional resources for hippos, rhinos, elephants, waterbucks, reedbucks and bushbucks, baboons and vervet monkeys. The steep inner slopes provide a habitat fro small dikdiks and the rarely seen mountain reedbucks while many other animals pass up and down the slopes as they enter and leave the crater.
 


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