Sunday, July 27, 2008

Mother giraffe with baby

Giraffes are a symbol of Tanzania. They are non-territorial and sociable, living in loose, open herds without leaders. Their peerless height and excellent eyesight enables visual contact between herd members spread over several kilometers.

Serengeti National Park - Tanzania

Video created by: timsmithdv, http://www.earthwatch.org/

The Serengeti is a region of grasslands and woodlands in Mara Region in Tanzania.

It has more than 1.6 million herbivores and thousands of predators. Blue Wildebeests, gazelles, zebras and buffalo are the animals most commonly found in the region.

This area is most famous for the migration that takes place every year, which is considered to be one of the seven tourist travel wonders of the world and was named by the American television show Good Morning America and newspaper USA Today as one of the "New Seven Wonders of the World" [1] in 2006.

Ngorongoro Crater - Tanzania

Video Created by: timsmithdv, http://www.earthwatch.org/

The Ngorongoro Crater is the world's largest unbroken volcanic caldera. The crater is 610m deep and the floor is 260km2. The steep sides of the crater mean that it has become a natural enclosure for a very wide variety of wildlife, including most of the species found in East Africa. Aside from herds of zebra, gazelle and wildebeest, the crater is home to the "big five" of rhinoceros, lion, leopard, elephant and buffalo. The crater plays host to almost every individual species of wildlife in East Africa, and there are an estimated 25,000 animals within the crater. Lake Magadi in the center of the crater is, like many in the rift valley, a soda lake supporting flocks of flamingo.

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. There are 53 countries, including Madagascar and all the island groups.

The climate of Africa ranges from tropical to subarctic on its highest peaks. Its northern half is primarily desert or arid, while its central and southern areas contain both savanna plainand very dense jungle (rainforest) regions. In between, there is a convergence where vegetation patterns such as sahel, and steppe dominate.

Africa boasts perhaps the world's largest combination of density and "range of freedom" of wild animals populations and diversity, with wild populations of large carnivores (such as lions, hyenas, and cheetahs) and herbivores (such as buffalo, deer, elephants, camels, and giraffes) ranging freely on primarily open non-private plains. It is also home to a variety of jungle creatures (including snakes and primates) and aquatic life (including crocodiles and amphibians).