Mapping the Great Wildebeest Migration as an Animation

Every year, some 1.5 million wildebeest walk a clockwise circle through the Serengeti and Masai Mara. It's a migration with no start and no finish, so the right way to animate it is as a loop that ends exactly where it began.

Set the stage with the parks

Before any animal moves, show the territory. Open the Regions tab and use Region Selector to fade in the Serengeti and Masai Mara as two soft fills. The whole story happens inside these shapes, and now viewers know it.

Animate the seasonal circuit

1. Add stops for each season: southern calving grounds in February, the western corridor by June, the Mara River in August, then back south with the November rains.
2. Give the Mara crossing a slower leg; it's the dramatic beat of the whole loop.
3. Close the circuit by making the final stop the same as the first, so the animation can play on repeat without a visible seam.

The same loop, other stories

This seasonal-loop structure adapts to any recurring journey. See bird migration routes as animated videos for the pole-to-pole version. Conservation groups pair both with donor appeals; the nonprofit's guide to animated impact map videos shows how.

Lay out your own circuit stop by stop in Route Builder and let the herd run.