Interesting things to know about Ngorongoro crater : Ngorongoro crater has about 30,000 huge creatures within the crater of a long-gone volcano. The Ngorongoro Crater is created by combining wetlands, forests, and grasslands across an area of 264 square kilometres (102 square miles). This well-known safari location provides guests with exceptional wildlife viewing safari in an incredibly distinctive environment. There is no way to adequately prepare you for the moment you look down into the Ngorongoro Crater for the first time.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a protected area in Tanzania, contains the Crater as well as a sizable portion of the short-grass plains of the southern Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Highlands, a collection of extinct volcanoes on the western side of the Great Rift Valley. With a tremendous concentration of wildlife coexisting in various environments, Ngorongoro Crater has established a legendary reputation as one of Africa’s most exceptional natural wonders.
- How was the Ngorongoro Crater created?
It is estimated that the Ngorongoro Crater was created around 2.5 million years ago when the cone of an active volcano collapsed inward following a significant eruption. The greatest trace of this implosion is the vast, uninterrupted caldera that we can still see today.
- What is a Caldera?
Caldera, which translates from Spanish as “cauldron,” is a bowl-shaped volcanic cavity that typically has a diameter greater than one kilometre (0.6 miles) and an outer boundary formed by steep slopes. When a volcanic cone’s (or group of cones’) top collapses because it is no longer supported by an underlying body of magma, a caldera typically results.
The top of the volcanic mountain will have vanished after the majority of the main eruptions are over, leaving a massive pit in its stead. Smaller cones could be formed in the caldera’s floor by minor eruptions that take place after the big implosion. Eventually, the water in these might collect to form lakes.
- What is unique about Ngorongoro Crater?
Ngorongoro Crater is home to some of the densest concentrations of large mammals in Africa in addition to being the largest intact (unbroken) volcanic caldera on Earth. The Ngorongoro Crater has essentially developed its own ecology as a result of its enclosed nature.
- How old is Ngorongoro Crater?
Between two and three million years old, according to estimates.
- What is Ngorongoro Crater known for?
It is recognized for both the beauty of its geology and the variety of animals and plants that may be found in a startlingly small space. On a wildlife drive in the Ngorongoro Crater, you can count on seeing large concentrations of animals. The Crater also offers some of East Africa’s most trustworthy opportunities to see the Big 5 (elephant, buffalo, rhino, lion, and leopard).
- When is the best time to visit Ngorongoro Crater?
The best of when to visit Ngorongoro Crater is less about maximizing your game-watching experience and more about how many other people and vehicles you want to share the Crater with as the wildlife remains inside the steep-walled caldera all year long. Between June and October, during the dry season, temperatures are mild and wildlife sightings are excellent. Animals are easy to find along the arid plains and don’t stray far from drinking holes. However, this is also prime safari season, when hordes of visitors from over the globe converge here.
The two rainy seasons in Tanzania are from November to December and April to May. The area around the caldera has warm temperatures and occasionally muddy roads. However, during the rainy seasons, there are many fewer people, and the Ngorongoro Crater turns into a gorgeously lush, emerald “Garden of Eden.”
Facts about Ngorongoro Crater.
The world’s biggest intact volcanic caldera (that’s not a Lake)
Ngorongoro Crater has a diameter of roughly 10 to 12 miles (16 to 19 km), and its walls can reach heights of 400 to 610 metres (1,312 to 2,000 feet), which is more than 1.5 times the height of the Empire State Building. There are a few calderas in the globe, but the Ngorongoro Crater stands out as the largest one with entirely intact (undamaged) walls that hasn’t flooded.
One of the seven natural wonders of Africa.
One of Africa’s Seven Natural Wonders, along with the Red Sea, Mount Kilimanjaro, the Sahara Desert, Wildebeest Migration, Nile River, and Okavango Delta, is the Ngorongoro Crater. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a protected area in Tanzania’s Arusha region and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is where the Crater is situated.
Home to Africa’s densest populations of predators.
The short-grass plains that grow thick on the floor of the Crater are a result of the mineral-rich volcanic soil and offer nourishing grazing for a variety of animals. These large herds in turn draw an impressive number of predators, including the densest populations in all of Africa.
One of the highest pride concentrations in the world can be found in the resident lion population of the crater. One of the characteristics of Ngorongoro Crater that makes it such a well-liked safari destination is this. Because of this, the lions in this area have no regard for safari vehicles; they will hunt just a few metres away from them and even stop there to escape the heat. Spotted hyenas, cheetahs, leopards, jackals, and bat-eared foxes round out the Crater’s pack of predators.
Almost 30,000 large mammals live in the Ngorongoro Crater.
On a Tanzania safari in the Ngorongoro Crater, you can count on seeing a wide variety of wildlife. Numerous grazers, including zebra, wildebeest, Thomson’s and Grant’s gazelle, buffalo, and tsessebe, can be seen in huge numbers on the lush caldera’s floor, which is largely flat, open, and covered in nourishing grasses.
Pods of rowdy hippo spend their days marinating in the Ngoitokitok Springs and Gorigor Swamp, which are located east of Lake Magadi, a small soda lake in the Crater. Excellent place to go bird watching is Ngorongoro Crater, which is home to over 500 kinds of birds, including ostriches, secretary birds, kori bustards, and greater flamingos.
East Africa’s best destination to spot the Big 5.
One of the most well-known Ngorongoro Crater facts is that there is a good probability that tourists may see all five of the Big 5 in one location. The local lion population is thriving, the buffalo herds are robust, leopards are frequently spotted near forested regions, and during the rainier months (November, December, April, and May), and there are sizable herds of elephant.
But what makes the Crater such a unique safari destination to see are the few endangered black rhinos that live there. These unusual-toed ungulates can frequently be seen on the open grasslands, but they actually reside in a caldera area that is guarded by park officers.
One of the world’s most important prehistoric sites.
One Ngorongoro Crater information that will fascinate tourists who have a deep interest in archaeology is this one. Ngorongoro Conservation Area’s Olduvai Gorge is home to some of the planet’s most extensive historical relics. Olduvai’s volcanic rock contains 3.6 million-year-old fossils that have been crucial in helping scientists comprehend the evolution of humans. These fossilised hominid remains are thought to represent the first examples of the human species.
Home to diverse habitats.
The Ngorongoro Crater is home to a stunning array of natural environments in addition to magnificent scenery and an abundance of species. The following are some of the most notable ecosystems:
Crater wall: primarily covered in dense montane forest, a leopard’s favored habitat.
Lake Magadi is a seasonal alkaline lake with soda flats surrounding it and is a haven for many water birds.
Hippo, elephant, and lion sanctuaries can be found in the Gorigor and Mandusi Swamps.
Hippo Pool is a well-liked location to take a break from a game drive, have a picnic, and enjoy the antics of chortling hippos.
Elephants, baboons, monkeys, leopards, and Fischer’s lovebirds frequent the Lerai Forest, a tiny wooded area.
The majority of the crater’s floor is covered in vast grasslands, which are home to numerous wildebeest, zebra, hyenas, eland, and lions.
You can stay on the crater’s rim.
Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area’s authority only gives six-hour permits to enter the Crater’s floor in order to regulate traffic and safeguard the fragile ecology. That indicates that there are no accommodation choices inside the caldera.
Over 550 species of birds can be seen here.
A lone ostrich stands amid the browned dry-season grass of Ngorongoro Crater and strikes a very sombre attitude. Over 550 different bird species can be seen at Ngorongoro Crater. When you give it some serious thought that is astounding. Although it is a sizable crater, one of the biggest in the world, it seems absurd to see so many birds within its boundaries and airspace.
Ngorongoro Crater’s ability to provide quick access to numerous uncommon, stunning, migratory, and unique bird sightings is one of its main attractions. A wide variety of raptors, including eagles, buzzards, hawks, kites, and vultures, can be observed in and around the crater. Greater and lesser flamingos, swans, storks, pelicans, geese, plovers, teal, gallinules, pheasants, plovers, lapwings, spurfowls, sparrows, larks, wheatears, pipits, cranes, bustards, coots, and rails are among the other species of birds found in the crater.
Plan your journey between September and April if you’re eager to witness the migratory bird species that frequent the crater. Montagu’s harriers, pallid harriers, lesser kestrels, European swallows, European bee-eaters, European rollers, Caspian lapwings, and northern wheatears are among the migrant birds that can be seen.
Three discrete tribes have historic roots here.
Maasai make over 98% of the local population.
Datooga – 2% of the resident population.
Hadza – There aren’t many families living close to Lake Eyasi.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, there are around 40,000 members of the Maasai tribe. However, they are comparatively recent arrivals to the area. Before the Maasai began to settle in the region in the 1700s and drive the Datooga out, they had long since inhabited the area.
Very old stone burial mounds thought to be from the Datooga people can be seen on the western shore of Lake Magadi in the Ngorongoro Crater.
The Hadza are thought to be the descendants of Tanzania’s first known settlers and have been present in the area for many centuries. Hadzane, the language they speak, is believed to be an isolation, meaning that there are no known connections between it and any other tongues.
A third of all Tanzania tourists visit the crater.
An annual (non-pandemic) visitation to Ngorongoro is about 450,000. The most recent statistics show that represents more than a third of all tourists to Tanzania. What wise people these people are. As a result, Ngorongoro is now ranked among Tanzania’s top tourist safari destinations, among places like Mount Kilimanjaro, Serengeti, and Zanzibar beaches.
