The Great Migration is one of the most remarkable natural phenomena in the animal kingdom, to the point that it merits a safari entirely of its own. This immense movement of wildebeest and zebra herds, accompanied by gazelles, hartebeest and elands, sees two and a half million animals cross more than 3,000 kilometres each year.
As the dry season arrives, the herbivores move up through Tanzania around March–April, reaching the Serengeti around June–July, where mating season takes place. They arrive at the Mara River, in Kenya, between July and August. This is when the dramatic spectacle unfolds: tens of thousands of animals crowd along the banks, waiting for the right moment to cross, risking being swept away by the current, seized by crocodiles lying in patient wait beneath the surface, or cornered by a pride of lionesses. It is nature's theatre, in all its raw and sometimes brutal truth.
At journey's end lie the vast grass plains of the Masai Mara. The animals remain in Kenya for around two months before heading back south around October, returning to their starting point, where the females will give birth.
A loop — the loop of life.