A calving note
Calving is a green-season event, which surprises people — December to March is when the south is alive, while June–October, the 'classic' safari months, can find these plains emptied as the herds move north.
Getting there
Flight to Ndutu/southern airstrips, or road from the crater
Best for
The calving season and open-plain game (Dec–Mar)
The land
Vast short-grass plains on volcanic soil
Honest note
Out of calving season the plains can be near-empty
What it is
This is where the migration begins — and where, for three months, it stops to give birth.
The southern Serengeti is the great short-grass plain, fed by the volcanic ash of the Ngorongoro highlands, and it is the migration's nursery. From December to March the herds gather here to calve — and the open, treeless ground means there is nowhere to hide, for the newborns or the predators that follow them. It is the Serengeti at its most elemental: grass, sky and the cycle of life and death in plain view.
The reason to come
What the southern plains are known for
The widest skies on the circuit, and the most concentrated drama of the migration's year.
The calving
Around half a million wildebeest calves are born here in a few short weeks — the migration's beginning.
Predators in the open
With no cover, cheetah, lion and hyena hunt in full view — the best open-plain predator action anywhere.
The short grass
Volcanic soil keeps the grass low and the visibility total — you see for miles.
The sky
Nowhere feels bigger; the southern plains are the Serengeti distilled to grass and horizon.
Fewer crowds
Outside the famous crossings, the south draws fewer vehicles than the north or centre.
The cycle
Birth, and what follows it
The calving is not a gentle spectacle. Half a million newborns on open ground is an irresistible draw for every predator on the plain, and the same week brings the year's most intense hunting. It is birth and death in the same frame, the migration's engine running at full power — and it is, for many, the most moving thing they see in Africa.
When to come — honestly
A green-season destination
December – March
Best
Calving season — The herds gather to calve and the predator action peaks — the only reason most people come south, and an unmissable one.
November
Good
Arrival — The herds begin moving down from the centre; early action builds.
From roughly May to October the migration has moved north and the southern plains are largely empty — beautiful and solitary, but quiet on game.
Why here
The ash that feeds the plain
The short grass exists because of the volcanoes. Ash from the Ngorongoro highlands and Ol Doinyo Lengai laid down a mineral-rich soil that grows exactly the kind of short, nutritious grass calving wildebeest need — which is why the migration returns to give birth in this precise place every year.
It also means the southern plains straddle the boundary of the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and the Ndutu region in particular sits in both — a detail that matters for where vehicles are allowed to go off-road.
We've left out the geology lecture. The point is simple: the volcanoes make the grass, the grass makes the calving, and the calving makes the south worth a green-season trip.
Beyond the obvious
Three things South Serengeti does best
Calving-season game drives
Newborns, and the predators that follow them, across open plains.
Open-plain cheetah
The best country in the Serengeti to watch cheetah hunt in the open.
Big-sky photography
The widest, emptiest horizons on the whole circuit.
Why Wild Voyager
The calving is a green-season secret, and we time it
Most people book the dry months and miss the south entirely. We run Tanzania year-round, so we send you here in the window when the plains are at their fullest.
Our own ground
Our Tanzania guides know where the herds have gathered on a given week — calving moves across the plains.
Right season, right place
We steer green-season travellers south for the calving, not north to empty crossing country.
Off the crowds
The south sees fewer vehicles than the north; we keep your calving days uncrowded.
Where to stay
Where you’ll stay in South Serengeti
Signature Collection
PhotoMwiba Lodge
Signature
Mwiba Lodge
An ultra-luxurious lodge among granite kopjes and springs, in a private reserve bordering the southern plains.
PhotoLegendary Serengeti Camp
Signature
Legendary Serengeti Camp
A mobile luxury camp that follows the herds, well placed for the calving season.
Luxury Collection
Classic Collection
See where the migration
is born.
December to March on the southern plains is the migration's beginning — green-season, dramatic, and quieter than the crossings.
Plan a calving safari