Seventh Wonder of the World

The Great Wildebeest Migration of Serengeti National Park was recently declared the Seventh Wonder of the world. In a joint project undertaken by USA Today and ABC-TV's Good Morning America, a multi-disciplined panel has named the "Site of the Great Migration," which includes about 90 per cent of Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, as the Seventh New Wonder of the World. The panelists who completed the new list of the new wonders of the world descrived the Serengeti and its Wildebeest Migration as "a rare and wondrous natural drama."

Wildebeest (African Wildlife Foundation)

The other six Wonders of the World in this list include the Polar Ice Caps in Iceland, the Underwater Coral Reef in Hawaii Island, Tibet's Potala Palace, Old Jerusalem City, the Mayan Pyramids in Mexico and the Internet.

Serengeti is Africa's greatest national park. It is in Northern Tanzania and covers 14,763sqkm.
Wildwatch has a great map of the migration paths of more than 1.5 million wildebeests, 600 thousand zebras and 300 thousand gazelles, which move in a gigantic herd, migrate through the area in a clockwise circle.

Following the grand multitude are packs of wild dogs and hyenas, families of cheetahs, and prides of lions all pursuing the vast herds. Above the long, dusty procession are circling vultures and other scavenging and hunting birds, on the lookout for their next meal.
No one knows for sure what triggers the migration but the herds seem to follow fresh pastures. In their thousands, these animals travel in long moving columns that at certain points extend for forty kilometers, and which ultimately will describe huge oblong figures a thousand kilometers across within an ecosystem of 250, 000 sq. kilometers.

The nomination of the Wildebeest migration as the Seventh Wonder of the World will give a boost to Tanzania’s safari tourism industry. With fantastic natural riches of landscape and wildlife, and over 25% of land protected for conservation, Tanzani is well-placed for economic growth.

You can browse the blogs of St Jude volunteers in the sidebar to get a taste of their safari experiences during breaks while volunteering at the school.

For further browsing about Serengeti and wildebeest, try these sites.

African Wildlife Foundation
Tanzania Tourist Board
Natural High – safari company