Planning the Great Migration: When the Wildebeest Move, Month by Month

By Safari News — Africa Calling Safaris, Partner desk, Nairobi · 15/10/2026

Each year roughly 1.5 million wildebeest, 400,000 zebra and 200,000 Thomson’s gazelle circle the Serengeti-Masai Mara ecosystem, following rainfall and fresh grass. Africa Calling Safaris, GTour’s East African partner, says the question it hears most often from clients is simply when to go — and the honest answer depends on which chapter of the migration a traveller wants to witness.

January to March, the herds gather on the southern Serengeti’s Ndutu plains, where volcanic soil grasses support the calving season; births peak in February, at up to 8,000 calves a day, drawing lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas and wild dogs. By April and May the columns push through the western corridor toward the Grumeti River, despite the long rains. June and July bring them to the northern Serengeti and the first Mara River crossings, usually in early July, as the animals enter Kenya’s Masai Mara — the season of the classic crossing photographs and peak camp occupancy. From August through October the herds remain in the Mara, crossing repeatedly, before short rains push them south again through Loliondo in November and December. Travellers connecting from Tbilisi or elsewhere in Europe typically route via Nairobi or Kilimanjaro, with onward charter flights to the migration camps.

Crossing dates shift yearly: 25 June in 2021, 11 July in 2022, late August in 2023. Nikos Pocock, the company’s managing director, notes that a five-day stay in the Mara between July and October gives a high probability of seeing a crossing, though the animals, not the itinerary, decide the exact day.

An estimated 300,000–500,000 wildebeest cross the Mara River each season, often more than once, while zebra typically lead the march north. Drought remains the largest killer overall, with roughly 250,000 wildebeest dying annually, mostly from starvation rather than drowning or predation.

Based on reporting by Safari News, the travel desk of Africa Calling Safaris (Nairobi), GTour’s partner for East Africa. Read the original there.