Other Migrants

The million or so wandering wildebeest make up the majority of the migrating animals, but they are joined by as many as 200,000 zebras while several hundred thousand more gazelles and antelope congregate with them.

Burchelli's Zebra
(Also, Plains or Common Zebra)

Scientific Name: Equus burchellii

Height: 50-55 inches

Weight: 385-550 pounds (female); 485-710 pounds (male)

Habitat: Grasslands and savanna and wooded grasslands.

Zebras in the thousands migrate with the wildebeest, and they are found in parks and reserves throughout East Africa. They form up into groups of several females ("harems") attached to one male, or stallion. Once a female has been won by a stallion and joined the harem, there she remains for life. Colts that have not won harems of their own join bachelor groups. Hyenas and lions prey on zebras young and old and leopards will occasionally take an unprotected foal. When attacked, the harem will attempt to flee as a group while the stallion tries to position himself between the harem and the predator. Given the opportunity, a stallion will kick and bite the pursuers.

Diet: Zebras are ruminants - cud chewers - and are able to digest a wider variety of grasses than the wildebeest with which they travel. When the migrants move into new pasture, the zebras trample and eat taller flowering grasses, clearing the way for the wildebeest to get at the short grasses below.

Thomson's Gazelles

Scientific Name: Eudorcas thomsonii

Height: 21-26 inches

Weight: 30-40 pounds (female); 35-60 pounds (male)

Habitat: Dry grasslands and savanna and wooded grasslands.

Thomson's Gazelle's, or "Tommies," congregate with the other antelopes of East Africa, including wildebeest, but they do not actually take part in the wildebeest migration. They are more drought tolerant than their neighbors and can subsist for much longer on drier, shorter grasses. In the Serengeti many Tommies follow a migratory pattern of their own. Broadly speaking, Thomson's Gazelles trail the wildebeest and zebras into pasture after the wildebeest and zebras have moved on, and migratory Thomson's do not travel as far north as the larger animals do. Thomson's gazelles are preyed upon by the usual suspects - lions, leopards, cheetahs, wild dogs, and hyenas.

Diet: The Tommie's diet of dry, short grasses is another example of the close inter-relationship among animals and landscape in the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem. Zebras clear the tallest, most difficult to digest grasses followed by wildebeest who consume the young green shoots and finally Thomson's Gazelles. The animals do not compete with one another for forage. Instead, through their adaptations, three separate species are able to sustain themselves from the biomass available on one piece of land.

Grant's Gazelles

Height: 30-33 inches

Weight: 84-170 pounds

Habitat: Grasslands and savanna, woodlands, semi-arid subdesert throughout East Africa.

Behavior: Grant's Gazelles, like Thomson's Gazelles, often congregate with wildebeest and other herbivores, but they do not take part in the migration. Also like Tommies, Grants benefit from the grazing undertaken by the wildebeest and zebras. They are more drought tolerant than even Thomson's Gazelles and can remain on the driest of the dry grass plains well after other grazers have moved on. Lions, leopards, hyenas, cheetahs, wild dogs all prey on Grant's Gazelles.

Diet: Grant's Gazelles are primarily browsers - they eat foliage from shrubs, herbs, and young grasses, depending on what's available. When pressed, they will graze dry grasses.