Ngorongoro Conservation Area

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area has officially declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. The area consists of various landscapes and includes dense mountain forests, woodlands, grasslands, lakes, and swamps. Some of the most important archeological sites in the world, such as Oldupai Gorge and Laetoli can be found in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Archeologists found evidence showing that the area was occupied by hominids over 3 million years ago and thus claiming that it could be the birthplace of mankind.

And then of course there is the Ngorongoro Crater, the largest unbroken, inactive, and unfilled caldera in the world. With a diameter of approximately 19 km (12 miles) and its majestic walls that rise just over 610 m (2000 feet), the crater floor covers an area of 260 sq km (100 sq miles). Over 30,000 animals including the rare black rhino call this unique place their home. Today over 40,000 Masais reside in the area making the Ngorongoro Conservation Area one of the few places in Tanzania where human habitation is allowed within a wildlife-protected area. The conservation shares a boundary with the Serengeti National Park and one must drive through the conservation in order to get to the Serengeti.

Highlights:
The crater floor is covered by various landscapes that range from dense mountain forests and woodlands to grasslands, lakes, and swamps. Water sources include the two main rivers, Munge River in the west and Lerai River in the east as well as the Ngotokitok spring that spills into a swamp.

Huge herds of ungulates dominate the crater floor with zebras, wildebeests, elands, Grant’s and Thompson’s gazelles being the species most commonly seen. But the crater is also home to the “big five” and elephants, lions, and buffaloes are often spotted. Leopards are rarely seen as they preferred staying in the forests on the crater rim. The almost extinct black rhino can also be found in the crate and sightings aren’t rare either. Serval cats spotted hyenas, and jackals are also often seen while cheetahs are more difficult to spot.

But it is not only mammals that reside in the conservation and great numbers of lesser flamingos can be seen at Lake Magadi, a primarily alkaline lake. Other common birds include ostriches, kori bustards, crowned cranes, white-backed vultures, black kites, cattle egrets, tawny eagles, augur buzzards, and many more.

A walk along the Ngorongoro Crater rim accompanied by an armed ranger takes visitors on a path created by livestock, pass moss-covered trees and Masai bomas, offering breath-taking views of the crater below.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area spans vast expanses of highland plains, savanna, savanna woodlands, and forests. Established in 1959 as multiple land-use areas, with wildlife coexisting with semi-nomadic Maasai pastoralists practicing traditional livestock grazing, it includes the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest caldera. The property has global importance for biodiversity conservation due to the presence of globally threatened species, the density of wildlife inhabiting the area, and the annual migration of wildebeest, zebra, gazelles, and other animals into the northern plains. Extensive archaeological research has also yielded a long sequence of evidence of human evolution and human-environment dynamics, including early hominid footprints dating back 3.6 million years

Brief synthesis

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area (809,440 ha) spans vast expanses of highland plains, savanna, savanna woodlands, and forests, from the plains of the Serengeti National Park in the north-west, to the eastern arm of the Great Rift Valley. The area was established in 1959 as a multiple land-use area, with wildlife coexisting with semi-nomadic Maasai pastoralists practicing traditional livestock grazing. It includes the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater, the world’s largest caldera, and Olduvai Gorge, a 14km long deep ravine. The property has global importance for biodiversity conservation in view of the presence of globally threatened species such as the black Rhino, the density of wildlife inhabiting the Ngorongoro Crater and surrounding areas throughout the year, and the annual migration of wildebeest, zebra, Thompson’s and Grant’s gazelles and other ungulates into the northern plains.

The area has been subject to extensive archaeological research for over 80 years and has yielded a long sequence of evidence of human evolution and human-environment dynamics, collectively extending over a span of almost four million years to the early modern era. This evidence includes fossilized footprints at Laetoli, associated with the development of human bipedalism, a sequence of diverse, evolving hominin species within Olduvai gorge, which range from Australopiths such as Zinjanthropus boisei to the Homo lineage that includes Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and Homo sapiens; an early form of Homo sapiens at Lake Ndutu; and, in the Ngorongoro crater, remains that document the development of stone technology and the transition to the use of iron. The overall landscape of the area is seen to have the potential to reveal much more evidence concerning the rise of anatomically modern humans, modern behavior, and human ecology.