Track the Animals of Africa With HerdTracker

By Marina Renzi

African animals are some of the most interesting, most studied, and most endangered species on the planet, but with HerdTracker, you can experience the magic of African wildlife all from the comfort of your own home.

Thousands of tourists flock to east Africa in order to see The Great Migration in person, but many tourists miss it because of lack of location information.

HerdTracker, a new Google Map, will now allow tourists and viewers from anywhere to track the migration patterns of the Wildebeest in real-time, so there’s no chance of missing out on all the action.

What is The Great Migration?

The Great Migration is an annual event where millions of animals in Africa trek thousands of miles to cross from Tanzania and Kenya in order to get to a water source and fertile birthing grounds.

The journey is incredibly dangerous for these animals because of the distance, various predators, and other natural factors that could be detrimental to the journey.

The most well-known and most sought out experience is the large Wildebeest herds crossing hippo and crocodile-infested waters to reach safety. Unfortunately, many of these animals won’t make it across to the other side, but it is fascinating to watch the struggle for survival in real-time.

Where to View The Great Migration

Want to watch The Great Migration in Africa? These conservation sites and parks are the best places to watch: Ngorongoro Conservation Area (Tanzania), Serengeti National Park (Tanzania), Mara River (Tanzania and Kenya), and the Maasai Mara National Reserve (Kenya).

However, if you can’t make the trip out to Africa, you can watch the whole event live on the HerdTracker map. This map shows instant updates on the Wildebeest migration patterns so you won’t miss any of the action.

HerdTracker has been around for seven years and has worked with large companies such as CNN, NBC News, Times Live, and many others.

With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, however, the migration of 2021 is promising to be one of the best ones yet full of incredible wildlife since all of the humans, poachers, planes, and cars are stuck isolating at home.

How Does HerdTracker Work?

HerdTracker is an award-winning tool that obtains weekly real-time reports from surveillance planes, safari guides, park rangers, and hotels in Africa in order to collect the data.

After winning bronze at the IAB bookmark awards, with 800 entries received, Discover Africa is the only company in the travel industry to win an award that handled its entire project concept, planning and execution with an in-house marketing and web development team.

“We never thought of building HerdTracker to win any awards. Our main focus wasn’t even to build a microsite. When we started developing HerdTracker, the goal was to create a useful tool for everybody out there interested in tracking the annual wildebeest migration.

With that in mind, our little internal team only had one mandate – make it for the people.” says Van Schalkwyk.

DiscoverAfrica

You can find the map using DiscoverAfrica, or, you can find it on all platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

“It’s an incredible tool,” says Andre Van Kets, co-founder of Discover Africa. “It allows you not only to track the great migration in real-time but also predicts where the herds will be at the time of your visit.”