Astronaut Ivan Vagner captured from ISS Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania.
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a protected area and a World Heritage Site located in the Crater Highlands area of Tanzania. The area is named after Ngorongoro Crater, a large volcanic caldera within the area. The crater, which formed when a large volcano exploded and collapsed on itself two to three million years ago, is 610m deep and its floor covers 260km2. Although thought of as “a natural enclosure” for a very wide variety of wildlife, 20% or more of the wildebeest and half the zebra populations vacate the crater in the wet season, while Cape buffalo stay; their highest numbers are during the rainy season. A side effect of the crater being a natural enclosure is that the lion population is significantly inbred. This is due to the very small amount of new bloodlines that enter the local gene pool, as very few migrating male lions enter the crater from the outside. Those who do enter the crater are often prevented from contributing to the gene pool by the crater’s male lions, who expel any outside competitors.
The local scenery on the ground is as follows.
Reference: Ivan Vagner’s Tweet
See earthview photo gallery: LiVEARTH