The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a protected area and a World Heritage Site located west of Arusha in the Crater Highlands area of Tanzania.
The Ngorongoro Crater is a huge volcanic caldera that hosts a great impressive ecosystem ideal for the survival and preservation of a large diversity of animals, ranging from the lions to the uncommon horned large rhinos. The crater itself is 600m deep to the bottom while the crater floor, is 20km in diameter filled with a diversity of wildlife, ponds plus pools.
the crater ecosystem supports a resident population of some 20 – 25,000 large mammals. There are vast numbers of plains game which feed on the short grasses of the crater floor – wildebeest, zebra, gazelle, buffalo, eland and hartebeest are all to be found here. In the swamp lands, elephant, rhino, waterbuck and bushbuck all reside quite happily.
Leopard, hyena and jackal can all be found stalking on the crater floor and in the pockets of woodland, and a strong and healthy lion population.
