Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania is an intrusion on the edge of the Serengeti. He was born when collapsed at this point, a volcanic mountain in itself. The crater floor is at about 1700 meters above sea level and the side walls are between 400 and 600 feet high, so that the crater edge is located at about 2300 meters. The diameter of the crater is 17 to 21 kilometers. Overall, the crater has an area of ​​26,400 hectares.

History

Since the beginning of the 20th century until the end of World War I moved the farmer Adolf Siedentopf with his wife Paula of Bielefeld in the Ngorongoro Crater and operated a farm with cattle ranching and wheat farming. During this time also moved temporarily to a Maasai tribe in the crater in order to help each other at the cattle and against the attacks of predators. Since that time, no one has lived more in the Ngorongoro Crater permanently, the Maasai live since then outside of the crater. They were resettled because poachers were living in their protection undetected in the crater.

Since 1951, the crater is part of the Serengeti National Park. 1959 a Special Protection Area ( Ngorongoro Conservation Area ) was set up outside the crater in which the Maasai settlement and grazing is allowed. 1975 agriculture was finally banned in the crater. In 1979 he was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Site and in 1981 honored as a Biosphere Reserve. In addition, the crater in 2010 was declared a World Heritage Site.

In a report to the World Heritage Committee, the park administration writes in 2006 that the number of vehicles of tourists in the crater constitutes a growing problem. In the outer regions, there is considerable urban pressure. Regularly illegal fields had to be cleared in the past. Recently 60,000 pastors were counted with 350,000 head of cattle in the reserve. This is significantly more than the land can support without the forbidden cereals. Through the government purchase of land outside the park now the situation is to be relaxed.

Climate and vegetation

Due to the different levels and the dynamics of air masses, the local climate varies greatly. The altitudes are usually humid and hazy. The lowlands subject to severe temperature fluctuations. The amount of rain falls in the months of November to April, and also varies greatly depending on the location.

The crater rims are covered by scrub and Heathland, tall-grass savannah and remnants of evergreen mountain forests. The crater floor is covered with short grass savannah, water points and acacia forests.

Wildlife

Approximately 25,000 large mammals inhabit the crater, including the highest predator density in Africa. Especially great is the number of zebras, buffalo, wildebeest, eland, and Grant and Thomson 's gazelles. They are chased by lions, hyenas and leopards spot. There are also in the crater, among other elephants and, unusually in this area, hippos. There are still between ten and 15 copies of the endangered black rhinoceros, whose population was more than a hundred animals in the 1960s. The great animal migrations in the Serengeti also lead through the Ngorongoro Crater.

Nature Ngorongoro Conservation Area

With its 8200 km ², it covers large parts of the crater highlands, including the mountains Makerut and Oldeani with 3130 and 3188 m altitude. In the west, near the Serengeti is the annual rainfall of 700 mm, in the highlands, however, up to 1400 mm. In Ngorongo crater itself rarely keep more than a few dozen elephants, but on the outer slopes of the crater and in the highlands in particular live in the mountain forest elephant populations more uncertain size. In 1981 there were 8288 elephants in the reserve in 1987 their number had fallen to 250.

Others

On the edge of the crater Michael Grzimek († 1959) and his father Bernhard Grzimek were († 1987) buried. Bernhard Grzimek had the Serengeti Research Institute initiated in the early 1960s with money from the Frankfurt Zoological Society, which was to explore the migration routes and behavior of wild animals, thus contributing to their long-term protection. The crater itself has been declared a national park.