What makes the Great Wildebeest Migration so great

You can hear the galloping hooves before you see them, the sheer number creating a noise that resounds over the savannah plains of Kenya’s Maasai Mara and reaches you in the game drive vehicle. Rightly called the ‘greatest wildlife show on earth’, witnessing part of the annual journey of 2.5 million wildebeest, zebra and gazelle as they follow the rains is a once-in-a-lifetime safari experience.

It is natural instinct that leads these plains animals to find greener pastures and fresh water sources, taking a circular route that moves in a clockwise direction from the Serengeti Plains in Tanzania to the Maasai Mara Reserve in Kenya. They travel some 2600 square kilometers across the two countries, facing often fatal challenges in the form of predators, both on land and in the rivers, as well as exhaustion, thirst and starvation. Here are four reasons that explain why watching the Great Wildebeest Migration is an experience found at the top of…