The Ngorongoro
Conservation Area is a protected area and a World Heritage Site located 180 km (110 mi) west
of Arusha in
the Crater Highlands area of Tanzania. The area is named after Ngorongoro
Crater, a large volcanic caldera within
the area. The conservation area is administered by the Ngorongoro Conservation
Area Authority, an arm of the Tanzanian government, and its boundaries follow
the boundary of the Ngorongoro Division of the Arusha Region.
The
2009 Ngorogoro Wildlife Conservation Act placed new restrictions on human
settlement and subsistence farming in the Crater, displacing Maasai pastoralists, most of whom had been relocated
to Ngorongoro from their ancestral lands to the north when the British colonial
government established Serengeti National
Park in 1959.
History and
geography
The
name of the crater has an onomatopoeic origin;
it was named by the Maasai pastoralists after the sound produced by the cowbell (ngoro
ngoro). Based on fossil evidence found at the Olduvai Gorge, various hominidspecies have occupied the area for 3 million
years.
Hunter-gatherers
were replaced by pastoralists a
few thousand years ago. The Mbulu came to the area about 2,000 years ago and
were joined by the Datooga around
the year 1700. Both groups were driven from the area by the Maasai in
the 1800s.
Massive
fig trees in the northwest of the Lerai Forest are sacred to the Maasai and the
Datooga. Some of them may have been planted on the grave of a Datooga leader
who died in battle with the Maasai around 1840.
No
Europeans are known to have set foot in the Ngorongoro Crater until 1892, when
it was visited by Oscar Baumann. Two German brothers (Adolph and
Friedrich Siedentopf) farmed in the crater until the outbreak of World War I, after leasing the land from the
administration of German East Africa.
The brothers regularly organized shooting parties to entertain their German friends.
They also attempted to drive the wildebeest herds
out of the crater.
In
1921, the first game preservation ordinance was passed, which restricted
hunting to permit holders throughout Tanzania. In 1928, hunting was prohibited
on all land within the crater rim, except the former Siedentopf farms. The National
Park Ordinance of 1948 (implemented in 1951) created the Serengeti National
Park (SNP). This,
however, caused problems with the Maasai and other tribes, resulting in the
Ngorongoro Conservation Area Ordinance (1959) that separated the conservation
area from the national park. Maasai pastoralists living in Serengeti National
Park were systematically relocated to Ngorongoro, increasing the population of
Maasai and livestock living in the Crater. The Ngorongoro
Conservation Area Authority was established by the Game Park Laws
(miscellaneous amendments) Act, 1976 and owns the majority of Ngorongoro
Conservation Area land, including the Crater. The area became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. The Wildlife Conservation Act of 2009 further
restricted human use of Ngorongoro Crater and created a legal framework to
politically disenfranchise and forcibly displace traditional pastoralists. The restriction on land use generates tension
between the local Maasai communities and conservation authorities. Currently,
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is seeking solutions
to ease conflict and improve collaborative efforts towards conservation with
the locals.
Land
in the conservation area is multi-use and unique because it is the only
conservation area in Tanzania that protects wildlife while allowing human habitation.
Land use is controlled to prevent negative effects on the wildlife population.
For example, cultivation is prohibited at all but subsistence levels.
The
area is part of the Serengeti ecosystem and, to the northwest, adjoins the SNP
and is contiguous with the southern Serengeti plains. These plains also extend
to the north into the unprotected Loliondo division and are kept open to
wildlife through transhumance pastoralism
practiced by the Maasai. The south and west of the area are volcanic highlands,
including the famous Ngorongoro Crater and the lesser known Empakaa Crateri.
The southern and eastern boundaries are approximately defined by the rim of the East African Rift wall, which also prevents animal
migration in these directions.
Geology
The Pliocene Ngorongoro Volcanic complex consists of 8 extinct shield volcanoes within the Eyasi Half-graben, the eastern boundary marked by
the Gregory RiftWestern Escarpment. The Lake Eyasi escarpment
bounds the half-graben on the southwest. Within the complex, 5 volcanoes are dome-shaped cones, while 3 have calderas.
Ngorongoro Volcano (2.5-1.9 Ma) is primarily basaltic trachyandesite. The caldera is fed by the
Munge and Oljoro Nyuki Rivers, while the Ngoitokitok hot springs feed
into the Goringop swamp. Lake Magadi is a shallow (1.7 m) alkaline lake. Other volcanoes within the
complex include Olmoti (2.01-1.79 Ma), Empakaai, Loolmalasin, Sadiman (3.7 Ma),
Lemagrut, and Oldeani. The northwest portion of the conservation area consists
of the Serengeti Plains, the Salei Plains, the Oldupai Gorge, and the Gol
Mountains inselbergs. These inselbergs are part of the Mozambique Belt quartzite and mica schist about
(800-500 Ma) in age.
Ngorongoro Crater
Ngorongoro from inside the crater
The main feature of the Ngorongoro Conservation Authority is the Ngorongoro Crater, the world's largest inactive, intact and unfilled volcanic caldera. The crater, which formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself two to three million years ago, is 610 metres (2,000 feet) deep and its floor covers 260 square kilometres (100 square miles). Estimates of the height of the original volcano range from 4,500 to 5,800 metres (14,800 to 19,000 feet) high. The crater floor is 1,800 metres (5,900 feet) above sea level. The crater was voted by Seven Natural Wonders as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa in Arusha, Tanzania in February 2013. The Ngorongoro volcano was active from about 2.45 to 2 million years ago.
The volcanic eruptions like that of Ngorongoro, which resulted in the formation of Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, were very common. Similar collapses occurred in the case of Olmoti and Empakaai, but they were much smaller in magnitude and impact.
Out of the two recent volcanoes to the northeast of the Empakaai caldera, Kerimasi and Ol Doinyo Lengai, Doinyo Lengai is still active and had major eruptions in 2007 and 2008. Smaller ash eruptions and lava flows continue to slowly fill the current crater. Its name is Maasai language for ‘Mountain of God’.
Lake
Magadi
The
Munge Stream drains Olmoti Crater to the north, and is the main water source
draining into the seasonal salt lake in
the center of the crater. This lake is known by two names: Makat as the Maasai called it, meaning salt;
and Magadi. The Lerai Stream drains the humid
forests to the south of the Crater, and it feeds the Lerai Forest on the crater
floor - when there is enough rain, the Lerai drains into Lake Magadi as well.
Extraction of water by lodges and Ngorongoro Conservation Area headquarters
reduces the amount of water entering Lerai by around 25%.
The
other major water source in the crater is the Ngoitokitok Spring, near the
eastern crater wall. There is a picnic site here open to tourists and a huge
swamp fed by the spring, and the area is inhabited by hippopotamus, elephants, lionsand
many others. Many other small springs can be found around the crater's floor,
and these are important water supplies for the animals and local Maasai, especially during times of drought.
Oldupai or Olduvai Gorge
The
Ngorongoro Conservation Area also protects Oldupai or Olduvai Gorges , situated in the plains area. It is
considered to be the seat of humanity after the discovery of the earliest known
specimens of the human genus, Homo habilis as
well as early hominidae, such as Paranthropus boisei.
The
Olduvai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along
eastern Africa. Olduvai is in the eastern Serengeti Plains
in northern Tanzania and
is about 50 kilometres (31 mi) long. It lies in the rain shadow of the
Ngorongoro highlands and is the driest part of the region.[25] The gorge is named after 'Oldupaai', the Maasai word
for the wild sisal plant, Sansevieria
ehrenbergii.
It
is one of the most important prehistoric sites
in the world and research there has been instrumental in furthering
understanding of early human evolution. Excavation work there was
pioneered by Mary and Louis Leakey in
the 1950s and is continued today by their family. Some believe that millions of
years ago, the site was that of a large lake, the shores of which were covered
with successive deposits of volcanic ash. Around 500,000 years ago seismic activity
diverted a nearby stream which began to cut down into the sediments, revealing
seven main layers in the walls of the gorge.
Approximately
25,000 large animals, mostly ungulates, live in the crater.[26] Large mammals in the crater include the black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis michaeli),
the local population of which declined from about 108 in 1964-66 to between
11-14 in 1995, the African buffalo or Cape buffalo (Syncerus
caffer), and the hippopotamus (Hippopotamus
amphibius).[26] There also are many other ungulates: the blue wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) (7,000
estimated in 1994), Grant's zebra (Equus quagga boehmi) (4,000),
the common eland (Taurotragus
oryx), and Grant's (Nanger
granti) and Thomson's gazelles (Eudorcas thomsonii) (3,000).[26] Waterbucks (Kobus
ellipsiprymnus) occur mainly near Lerai Forest.[26]
Absent
are giraffe, impala (Aepyceros
melampus), topi (Damaliscus lunatus), oribi (Ourebia oribi), crocodile (Crocodylus
niloticus).[1][16]
Cheetah (Acinonyx
jubatus raineyi), East African wild dog (Lycaon pictus lupinus), and African leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) are
rarely seen.[1][27] Spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) have
been the subject of a long-term
research study in the
Ngorongoro Conservation Area since 1996.
Although
thought of as "a natural enclosure" for a very wide variety of
wildlife, 20 percent or more of the wildebeest and half the zebra populations
vacate the crater in the wet season, while Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer)
stay; their highest numbers are during the rainy season.[16]
Since
1986, the crater's wildebeest population has fallen from 14,677 to 7,250
(2003-2005).[16] The numbers of eland and Thomson's gazelle
also have declined while the buffalo population has increased greatly, probably
due to the long prevention of fire which favors high-fibrous grasses over
shorter, less fibrous types.[16][26]
Lake
Magadi, a large lake in the southwest of the crater, is often inhabited by
thousands of mainly lesser flamingoes.[28]
Lioness
yawns in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
A
side effect of the crater being a natural enclosure is that the lion population
is significantly inbred. This is due to the very small amount of new bloodlines
that enter the local gene pool, as very few migrating male lions enter the
crater from the outside. Those who do enter the crater are often prevented from
contributing to the gene pool by the crater's male lions, who expel any outside
competitors.[1]
Long-term
data imply that lions in the crater were struck by four deadly disease
outbreaks between 1962 and 2002. Drought in 1961 and rains
throughout the 1962 dry season caused a massive build-up of blood-sucking stable flies(Stomoxys calcitrans) by
May 1962. They drained blood and caused painful skin sores that became
infected, causing lion numbers to crash from 75-100 to 12. The population
recovered to around 100 by 1975 and remained stable until 1983, when a
persistent decline began. Numbers have generally remained below 60 animals
since 1993, reaching a low of 29 in 1998. In 2001, 34 percent of the lion
population died between January and April from a combination of tick-borne
disease and canine distemper.
The
lion population is also influenced to some extent by the takeover of prides by
incoming males, which typically kill small cubs. The biggest influence, however, appears to be
disease, particularly canine distemper.
The
Ngorongoro Conservation Area has a healthy resident population of most species
of wildlife. The Ndutu Lake area to in the west of the conservation area has
particularly strong cheetah and lion populations. Common in the area are hartebeest (Alcelaphus
buselaphus), spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), and jackals. The population of African wild dog may have declined recently. Servals occur widely on the plains to the west
of the Ngorongoro Crater.
The
annual ungulate migration
passes through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, with 1.7 million wildebeest, 260,000 zebra,
and 470,000 gazelles moving south into the area in December and moving north in
June. This movement changes seasonally with the rains, but the migration
traverses almost the entire plains in search of food.
For more information on how to visit Ngorongoro Crater, please, contact us
Email: jshabani2011@gmail.com, Call/whatsapp: +255716560094