Talk:Ngorongoro Conservation Area

In Popular Culture?
I know a lot of pages have sections where the particular subject is featured in reference in popular culture. For this particular article, it should be worth mentioning that the extremely popular MMORPG World of Warcraft features an entire zone named "Un'Goro Crater," which is a reference to Ngorongoro. I'd add it but I don't see anything in the article to put it.-Jaardon 00:01, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Origins of the name Ngorongoro
Is there a source that can be quoted for the origin of the name? "Ngorongoro was named by the Maasai as El-Nkoronkoro meaning Gift of Life." Can you back this up? Do you speak Maa, or is there a dictionary that supports the name? According the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Guidebook by Jeanette Hanby and David Bygott printed by The Print Shop in Nairobi (1990s) on page 12 "One explanation for the name Ngorongorois that it was a name of an especially valiant group of Datoga warriors who were defeated by the Maasai after a battle in the Crater about 150 years ago. ... Just as likely, the name Ngorongoro could be an age set of the Maasai. Other candidates for the name are that Ngorongoro was the name of a Maasai cattle bell maker who lived in the Crater, or the name for a grinding stone which the caldera resembles." Lots of possibilities, but it seems we have no evidence for the origin of a name. Kengele (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 06:58, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
 * It is simply a reduplication of n-goro 'round' -> circle. 2003:DD:F36:657:E412:4B9F:56C8:8136 (talk) 09:33, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Lake
Lake Magadi is in Kenya. Most other sources I have checked say that the name of the lake in the Ngorongoro crater is Lake Makat.
 * While there is a Lake Magadi in Kenya, the name of the largest lake in Ngorongoro Crater is also Lake Magadi. If you look at Google Earth, the name Lake Magad comes up. I have another source (a book) if anyone seriously doubts the correctness of this. Just ask, and I'll write it out. Here's a web reference, too Steve Pastor 23:42, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Magadi is a Swahili word meaning soda or salt, hence the name Lake Magadi in Kenya. The equivalent in Maa (Maasai) is Makat, also meaning salt or soda. I double-checked Makat in this dictionary http://pages.uoregon.edu/maasai/Maa%20Lexicon/index-english/main.htm. I have seen and heard the lake in Ngorongoro Crater referred to as Magadi and Makat in English conversations. I think this depends on where (which language) the name is borrowed from. There is another much smaller lake just north of Moru kopjes in the Serengeti commonly known as Magadi in Swahili as well. The "Official Map & Visitor Guide - Serengeti" created by the Frankfurt Zoological Society and published by Harvey Maps ISBN 978-185137404-5 names both the Ngorongoro lake and the one north of Moru kopjes as "Lake Magadi" favouring the Swahili names for their map. Kengele (talk) 13:20, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Lake Magadi (Ngorongoro) was created in May 2022. Mcljlm (talk) 18:55 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Formatting
I'm no good at it myself, but the page needs formatting work in the first section, where the pictures are ruining the clarity of the text.Alternator 17:57, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Sunset photo
 The page at this url has a copyright notice by that site on top of this image. The scene has nothing which would link it to Ngorongoro. Steve Pastor 22:44, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Size
The main feature of the NCA is the Ngorongoro Crater, which is the world's largest unbroken, unflooded volcanic caldera. The Crater, which formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago, is 610m deep and the floor is 260km² (102 square miles).[7] Northern Tanzania with Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar. Phillip Briggs. 2006. page 197. ISBN 1-84162-146-3 Note especially the adjectives qualifying this statement. Steve Pastor (talk) 20:10, 28 January 2010 (UTC)
 * What about the Mount Aso Caldera? --80.136.54.185 (talk) 22:03, 19 February 2010 (UTC)

18 x 25 = 450 square kilomters vs Ngorongoro's 8,288 km² (3,200 square miles)! No?Steve Pastor (talk) 01:30, 20 February 2010 (UTC)


 * As you can see above, and in the arcticle itself, the Ngorongoro Crater covers only 260km² (17 x 21 kilometers). --80.136.61.134 (talk) 10:47, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

"its floor covers 260 km2." Wonder if that introductory paragraph has been messed up along the way? I certainly hope I didn't write it! I didn't check initially further into the article. A rewrite may be in order! Steve Pastor (talk) 20:10, 20 February 2010 (UTC)


 * A January 2008 version of the non-intro text. The Crater, which formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago, is 610m deep and the floor is 260km² (102 square miles). [5] Estimates of the height of the original volcano range from fifteen to nineteen thousand feet high.[6][7] Steve Pastor (talk) 20:16, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

Revision as of 11:16, 8 July 2006 (edit) (undo)George cowie (talk | contribs) This is when that text was added. It was never challenged. Removing it now.Steve Pastor (talk) 20:21, 20 February 2010 (UTC)

Mount Aso seems to me to be broken. The statement here states that it is "unbroken", so that seems valid. However I am not sure that the caldera (which is what it now is) exploded? I though it collapsed inward after the magma in the chamber subsided. Presumably the hominids in the area at the time (perhaps Paranthropus boisei and Homo habilis and maybe others) would have experienced lots of earthquakes and dust and ash? If a caldera that size was caused by an explosion, the effect on weather and the general vicinity would have almost been catastrophic. The ash and fallout from the Lake Toba explosion in Sumatra ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory ) about 75,000 years ago most likely wiped out all the Homo sapiens inhabitants in the sub-continent of India. I don't think anything that catastrophic happened when Ngorongoro Crater collapsed. Kengele (talk) 15:31, 3 January 2015 (UTC)

Flamingos
Large flocks occur in the lake at the center of the crater. Worthy of at least a mention. 75.170.79.196 (talk) 10:10, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

Rephrase
In the line with Mammalian predator Density, it's made out to sound link rhinoceros and hippos are carnivores  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vennificus (talk • contribs) 05:04, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

'Ngoro'ngoro

 * I seem to recall having seen this spelled 'Ngoro'ngoro, the apostrophe indicating that 'ng is pronounced like the "ng" in "king", lacking the "hard g" sound. Should that be mentioned in the article?  Why isn't there anything about pronunciation? Michael Hardy (talk) 17:42, 31 July 2010 (UTC)
 * The correct Swahili spelling of that pronunciation would be Ng'orong'oro. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 06:41, 2 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Ngorongoro is correct. It is a hard "g" sound as in good, and the n is a separate sound preceding it. If it were Ng'orong'oro the hard "g" would not be pronounced and a "ng" sound as in the English "sing" would be pronounced. I have never heard it said like that.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kengele (talk • contribs) 13:27, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Vulcanology
The books listed as references are more than mere travel guides. But it would be great if you could pursue finding "scientfic" sources to list.Steve Pastor (talk) 16:04, 2 November 2011 (UTC)
 * This Google search leads to pages saying that the Ngorongoro volcano collapsed 2 or 2.5 or 3 million years ago (opinions vary) and that it had rivalled Kilimanjaro in height. But please where is a scientific vulcanological article on this, rather than popular travel guides and similar? Anthony Appleyard (talk) 06:41, 2 November 2011 (UTC)

File:Inside Ngorongoro crater.jpg to appear as POTD soon
Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Inside Ngorongoro crater.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on April 25, 2012. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2012-04-25. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! — howcheng  {chat} 16:40, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

Introduction Paragraph
"the local Maasai pastoralists, who, in 2013, were aided by an international Avaaz campaign from being evicted from pastures bordering Serengeti National Park in order to facilitate the interests of a private luxury safari company." This event and newspaper article refers to the Loliondo Game Controlled Area. While it may shine some light on Tanzanian Government attitude to the Maasai, it does not seem relevant to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, as the administration responsible for this is totally different. As a result I removed this paragraph. Kengele (talk) 19:11, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

I think the whole page needs a major edit. It seems to me a little disjointed. Where possible more sources need to be given for information provided here. Perhaps a separate page should be written for Ngorongoro Crater? In other words there could be 2 pages - one for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and another for Ngorongoro Crater? I don't have time to do this now, but what does anyone else think? Should a new page be done? If so can this be done in a sandbox and edited first before being published? Kengele (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 07:53, 8 September 2015 (UTC)


 * This is what the page looked like after I put in a considerable amount of effort "several" years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ngorongoro_Conservation_Area&diff=173544801&oldid=173320609 . I guess I can agree that, on the whole, subsequent edits haven't made the it better. So, major edit? Sure. But that's a MAJOR investment of time, especially if you want to restore lost material and references. Separate article for the crater? It seems to me there is currently not enough material to support it. Steve Pastor (talk) 17:12, 8 September 2015 (UTC)

Okay, I agree, quite a bit of time would be needed. I also agree that the page isn't much better after several changes, but perhaps after a couple more years of notes here, hopefully with references to sources, an edit will be easier!Kengele (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 21:34, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

Wildlife
I think "The Ngorongoro Crater includes most of the animal species found in East Africa" is a bit of a generalisation. "Animal species" includes a huge span (fish, molluscs, birds, insects and other arthropods, reptiles.... )... How many animal species inhabit the East African Coastline, and how many are also in the Ngorongoro Crater? How many primate species live in the forests of south-western Uganda, the eastern-arc mountains of Tanzania and Lake Tanganyika? There are even many species of ungulates not present in the Crater (giraffe, oryx, impala, gerenuk, 2 species of kudu, and of course many more). It might be better to delete this sentence or qualify it more. Kengele (talk) 19:26, 2 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Thanks for coming to the Talk page! Steve Pastor (talk) 21:44, 2 January 2015 (UTC)

Re-rating Article
I think the article can do with a re rating. Its certainly not a start class anymore. -- Sputink (talk) 20:43, 3 January 2016 (UTC)

External links modified (February 2018)
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Gallery removed
I've removed a large gallery of images. Commons exists and had those images and we don't need to spam them all into article space. Images should support article content and not exist as a slow loading gallery within the article. Vsmith (talk) 22:40, 12 May 2019 (UTC)

Ownership and movie
Rather surprised that nothing is mentioned of German actor Hardy Kruger's thirteen year ownership of Ngorongoro from 1960 to 1973 and the filming of the 1962 movie "Hatari!" 2600:8800:784:8F00:C23F:D5FF:FEC4:D51D (talk) 04:54, 27 May 2020 (UTC)

Oldupai/Olduvai Gorge
"Main article: Olduvai Gorge" is below the section heading Oldupai or Olduvai Gorge. The first paragraph's Oldupai or Olduvai Gorges links to the article mentioned below the heading. For consistency and in view of the discussion at Oldupai vs Olduvai shouldn't that be Olduvai Gorge or at least "Oldupai or Olduvai Gorge". Mcljlm (talk) 18:31, 10 March 2024 (UTC)