Ngorongoro conservation area
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve, is located 190 kilometers west of Arusha, between Serengeti Lake Manyara and National Parks.
Welcome to NCA
NCA was established in 1959,The Ngorongoro Conservation Area covers 8,292 square kilometers. The main feature of the NCA include the Ngorongoro Crater. The Serengeti Plains the catchment forest the Northern Highland Forest Reserve (NHFR) known as ‘Entim Olturot’ in Maa language, The archaeological and palaeontological site located at Oldupai Gorge and the early human foot-prints that were discovered at Alaitole in Ngarusi area. Because of the harmonious co-existence between wildlife and people that has existed for many years, NCA was accorded the status of a World Heritage Site and listed as one of the International Biosphere Reserve by the UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Reserve Programme.
What to see?
Wildlife and Vegetation Cover
The crater is a smaller form of the characteristic life in East Africa. It is home to a diverse amount animals counting Elephants, Black Rhinos, Hippos, Buffalos, zebras, warthogs, monkeys, wildebeests and gazelles. With so numerous grazers, open and powerless on the brief grasses, predators moreover prosper inside the crater. Panthers, hyenas and jackals can be found on the crater floor and within the forest as well as the densest populace of Lions within the world. There are too more than 200 bird species like ostriches, ducks and flamingos.
Ngorongoro is home to lush green, rain-watered vegetation as well as desert plants. The area has uncultivated lowland vegetation, arid and semi-arid plant communities, abundant short grass used for grazing, and highland forests
Ngorongoro Crater
The Ngorongoro Crater, which is the area’s main feature, is the world’s largest intact caldera. The Ngorongoro Crater floor is 304 square kilometers in size, with a diameter of 19 kilometers and a precipitous drop of 610 meters below the crater rim. Thousands of plains species, including wildebeest, zebra, gazelles, elands, and a big predator population of lions, hyenas, and jackals, may all be seen up close on the crater floor. Here you can see the uncommon black rhino, as well as cheetah and leopard if you’re lucky. The caldera rim is approximately 2286 meters above sea level.
Maasai People
There are a almost 42,200 Maasai pastoralists living within the NCA with their cattle, jackasses, goats and sheep. Amid the rains they move out on to the open fields; within the dry season they move into the adjoining woodlands and mountain slopes. The Maasai are permitted to take their animals into the Crater for water and grazing, but not to live or develop there. Somewhere else within the NCA they havethe right to roam freely
Ndutu Wildebeest Place
Ndutu is the birthplace of the wildebeest and is situated within in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It is here that the wildebeest stop to calve throughout their big migration so that their moms can nurse their calves on the lush grass of this volcanic region. This occurs once a year, between January and March. The Serengeti short grasslands surround Lake Ndutu, which is a soda lake bordered by wetlands and woods. It's a must-see for seeing the spectacular natural occurrence of the Wildebeest with their new calves, and it's also a great place to see large cats and predators.