The Masai Mara Game Reserve, popularly called the Mara, is located in southern Kenya and is contiguous with the Serengeti National Park of northern Tanzania. It is one tenth the size of the Serengeti or about half the size of the state of Rhode Island.
The reserve, named for [L3 419 / the Masai tribe], was set aside by the British colonial government in the 1930s; however, it remained largely unrecognized for its wealth of wildlife until 15 years ago. Before the six-year [L3 420 / border closing between Tanzania and Kenya], the Mara was a quick stop for safaris going to or returning from the Serengeti.
Today, it is considered by many to be Kenya's most spectacular wildlife park. It lacks the wide open spaces of the Serengeti plains, but its abundance of large game animals has made the Mara a favorite safari destination. It is famous for its large lion population as well as the migrating wildebeest which dominate the Mara during the dry season (July through October). Its 645 square miles of rolling grassy hills and woodlands make up the northern tip of the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem and are essential to the success of the migration.
Prior to 1969, the wildebeest did not graze in the Mara. However, once rinderpest died out, the population increase dramatically forcing the migration further north for dry-season grazing. Without the Mara's grasslands and permanent water sources, much of the wildebeest population would die.
