Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Home to the stunning Ngorongoro Crater, Olduvai Gorge, Shifting Sands, and the vibrant Maasai community.
Welcome to Ngorongoro Conservation Area
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) is a well-established wildlife management entity under the Tanzanian government, dedicated to managing the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (also known as NCA) and conserving its stately-natural splendor while striving to make it the world’s top tourism destination – Your best option for a future holiday is the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area is in northern Tanzania. It’s home to the vast, volcanic Ngorongoro Crater and “big 5” game (elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo, rhino).
It’s the only site in the world with human communities and a high concentration of wildlife living in harmony. The multiple land use systems are among the earliest to be established around the world as a way to reconcile conserving natural resources and human development. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area also contains many archaeological, paleontological and anthropological sites of exceptional quality. If
Wildlife on a Ngorongoro Conservation Area
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area contains over 25,000 large animals including approximately 26 black rhinoceros (the exact number is unknown in order to protect them). Higher up in the rainforests of the crater rim you’ll find large elephants, leopards, mountain reedbuck, buffalos, rare wild dogs, spotted hyenas, jackals, cheetahs, and other felines. The crater also has the densest-known lion population.
Also making its way through Ngorongoro is the annual zebra and wildebeest migration, when approximately 2 million ungulates move south into the area in December then move back out in June to head north. The migrants passing through the plains of the NCA include 1.8 million wildebeest, 200,000 zebra, and 350,000 gazelles. To the west, the Lake Ndutu area has a large population of cheetah and lion. Over 500 species of bird have also been noted within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, including white pelican, ostrich, and greater and lesser flamingo on Lake Magadi within the crater and Lake Ndutu.
Vegetation in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Ngorongoro is home to desert plants as well as lush green, rain-watered vegetation . The area has abundant short grass used for grazing, arid and semi-arid plant communities, uncultivated lowland vegetation and highland forests.
On Oldeani Mountain and Pencil Cedar on Makarut Mountain to the west there are extensive stretches of pure bamboo. Dove-weeds are prominent on the lower slopes, while the upland woodlands are home to Red Thorn Acacia and Gum Acacia -critical for protecting the watershed. Scrub heath, high open moorland, grasslands and what’s left of the dense evergreen forests cover the slopes of the crater, while highland trees including Yellow-Wood, Kousso (Hagenia abyssinica), Peacock Flower and Sweet Olive are also found. All of this makes it truly unique, and a wonderful stop on of our Photography Safaris in Tanzania.
The basin of the crater is covered by open short grass plains with fresh water lakes, swamps, marshes, and two patches of Acacia woodland. Laiyanai Forest has Pillar Wood and Acacia Lahai while the Lerai Forest is home to the Yellow Fever tree and Acacia. The plains to the west are grass-covered with occasional Umbrella Acacia and Commiphora Africana trees. In the drier conditions besides Lake Eyasi, Blackthorn Acacia and Zebrawood dominate. These vast grasslands and bush are rich, relatively untouched by cultivation, and support large populations of animals.
Ngorongoro Attractions & Activities
