A dense herd of wildebeest massed at a Mara River crossing

The Mara runs on a calendar. Here it is.

Timing is everything and nothing is predictable. The herds move with the rain, and nobody knows exactly when the rain comes. What follows is the pattern, not a promise.

The migration, month by month

Jan — Mar
Calving in the south
The herds finish a southward trek along the eastern Serengeti into the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, where the plains are rich in nutritious grass and the calves are born.
Apr — May
The drift north-west
The herds begin moving north-west towards the fresher grass of the central Serengeti, drawing thousands of zebra with them. By May the columns stretch for several kilometres.
Jun — Jul
The Grumeti, then the border
The dry season starts. Large concentrations gather on the southern banks of the Grumeti River — the first of the crocodile-lined crossings — then continue north towards the Mara.
Aug — Oct
Mara River crossings
The herds have crossed the Mara River and are spread through the northern Mara. In years of full flow the crossings are chaotic and costly. This is what people book a year ahead for.
Late Oct — Dec
Back south
The first short rains fall on the Serengeti's short-grass plains and the wildebeest start heading south again, some ninety per cent of the cows already carrying the next season's young.

Same animals, different rules

A conservancy, not the reserve.

Mara North Conservancy covers around 70,000 acres on the northern border of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. It was established in 2009 by twelve member camps together with more than 800 Maasai landowners, who lease the land rather than sell it.

Because access is controlled by those twelve camps, there is no day-visitor traffic and no queue at a sighting. Camps follow the conservancy’s environmental rules — solar power, eco-friendly waste handling — as a condition of the lease.

90
Mammal species recorded: 500+
Bird species: 57
Raptor species: 1.5m
Wildebeest between July and October