Wildebeests in the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya
© Matt Polski/Getty Image
The animal kingdom's great migration. Wildebeests in Maasai Mara, Kenya
Welcome to Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve, where some of its most iconic inhabitants are out for an evening stroll. Wildebeests, also known as gnus, are social animals which often form large herds. There are two types: black wildebeests and blue wildebeests and it is the latter which take part in the famous Great Migration, one of the world's greatest wildlife spectacles.
This typically starts in January or February and sees more than a million wildebeests, along with large herds of zebras and other species, migrate from the Serengeti in neighboring Tanzania to the Maasai Mara in search of water and greener pastures. They arrive in Kenya from late July and stay until November when they start moving south again, a round trip of some 500 miles. Tourists flock to the Maasai Mara to witness this incredible natural spectacle.
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