Serengeti volcanic grasslands.

Serengeti Plain (Tanzania); Southern Africa

The Serengeti volcanic grasslands is a 9,650-square-mile (25,000-square-kilometer) area straddling the borders of Tanzania and Kenya that gets its name from the Maasai word Siringit, meaning endless plains. The ecosystem is defined by the movement patterns of the migratory ungulates, which roam the plains in search of food and water, stimulated by local rainfall. The grasslands of the Serengeti Plains are bordered in the southeast by the Ngorongoro Mountains and the active Oldonyo le-ngai volcanic mountain, as well as the Great Rift Valley. To the south are the Sukuma plains. To the west is Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest inland water body; in the north are the Mau highlands, Siria escarpment, and Mara River in Kenya and Tanzania.