Tanzania Parks

TANZANIA

Gombe Stream National Park

This 52 sq km park is located on an island in Lake Tanganyika and can be accessed only by boat. This is the home of the Chimpanzee and this is where the longest study on them has been conducted, by Dr Jane Goodall. You can see them up close with a guide. Other animals include baboons and monkeys, and birds like the blue breasted kingfisher and the double toothed barbet. The park is mainly a tropical evergreen forest.

Katavi National Park

The picturesque park covers an area of 2253 sq km and is mainly a floodplain abounding in antelope like puku, common reedbuck, sable and tsessebe as well as elephant and buffalo herds, hippos and over 400 species of birds including go-away birds, red faced mousebirds and white winged babbling-starlings.

Kilimanjaro National Park

The name is the result of 2 words - "Kilima" meaning 'mountain' in Swahili and "Jaro" meaning "whiteness" in the Chagga language.
Whether it translates to Mountain of Greatness as per the Chaggas or Mountain of Water as per the Maasai, or a Mountain of Spirits as was believed by the early settlers, this mammoth rock is a World Heritage Site and the tallest free standing mountain on our planet. At 5895m ‘Kili’ is 2/3rd the height of Mt Everest (8848m). The park covers 756 sq km and includes montane forest, moorland, snowfields, glaciers, desert and three volcanoes – Shira, Kibo and Mawenzi. The mountain has twin peaks – Kibo and Mawenzi. Organised treks take you to the rooftop of Africa in 5-8 days, depending on the chosen route – there are multiple routes up the mountain. Wildlife abounds on the lower slopes eg elephant, buffalo, duikers, turacos, grass mouse, lammergeyer, malachite sunbirds, etc.

Lake Manyara National Park

There are two viewpoints regarding the derivation of the name. One is that it comes from the Mbugwe word "manyero" which means a place where animals come to drink. The other comes from the emanyara tree that is found in large numbers in this area. However, this tree is not indigenous to the region and may have been brought here from India or Brazil; hence the earlier definition seems more reasonable. The park covers an area of 325 sq km and touches the western rim of the East African Rift Valley. Although it has a unique identity of its own and requires a minimum stay of two nights, it has become an overnight halt for tourists moving from Arusha to the Crater or in the opposite direction which is a pity. The park is home to a large flamingo population, the famed tree climbing lions (though you have more chance of seeing them in the Serengeti given your short stay here), buffalo, elephant, hippos, blue monkeys, baboons, bushbucks, wildebeest, giraffe, impala, zebra, and a vast variety of birds eg Verreaux’s eagle, vultures, yellow billed storks, pelicans, swifts and swallows, cormorants, shrikes, hornbills, wagtails and pythons and monitor lizards. The park is associated with the first scientific research on African elephants by Iain and Oria Douglas Hamilton in their book “Among the Elephants” in 1975.

Mikumi National Park

At 3230 sq km, the park offers excellent wildlife viewing close to the capital city of Dar es Salaam. Its wildlife is centred on the floodplain of the Mkata River. The topography consists of Miombo woodland, grassland, baobabs, palms and gallery forest flanked by the Uluguru mountains. Animals include the Big Five, giraffe, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest, sable, wildebeest, zebra, impala and wild dogs. 370 birds species have been discovered in the park including the pale billed hornbill, Dickensons kestrel and the raquet-tailed roller.

Mkomazi National Park

Bordering Kenya’s Tsavo West National Park on one side and the Pare Mountains on the other, this recently reopened park covers an area of 1,000 sq km. The park is off the beaten track and offers a true wilderness experience with its thornbush savannah, nyika bushes, thorn acacias, baobabs and low rocky hills. Black rhinos were introduced here in the ’80’s and are showing a recovery as they are protected. So are wild dogs. The huge seasonal elephant herds that crossed between Tsavo and Mkomazi are once again coming back. Apart from these animals, the park is home to the big five as well as oryx, eland, dik-dik, gerenuk, kudu, Coke’s hartebeest, and a large number of birds. One of the attractions here is walking safaris.

Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Ngorongoro is derived from Maa word meaning "place with mountains and gorges".
A World Heritage Site, it covers an area of 8280 sq km and lies between Lake Manyara and the Serengeti National Park. It includes the Ngorongoro Crater, the worlds largest caldera with walls averaging over 2000m high and a circumference of 60 km, and the Olduvai Gorge, where the fossils of the earliest humans have been found. The crater is 19km wide and is possibly as close as a wildlife enthusiast can get to the mythical Garden of Eden. From Lake Manyara it’s an hour’s drive up the rift valley wall and the temperature at the crater wall can drop to just a few degrees above freezing, with clouds touching the road and all of sudden they disappear as you descend into the crater floor and the sun shines brightly through! Its incredible to view such a fantastic array of wildlife in a ‘cauldron’ – that is what the crater floor becomes in the dry season. The weather at the bottom around Lake Magadi is usually quite different and it can get very hot in the day. You can spot all the big five in a single game drive apart from wildebeest, zebra, hyena, gazelles, hartebeest, hippos, and a large variety of birds eg Abdim’s stork, Kori bustard, grey crowned cranes, ducks and geese.

Ruaha National Park

This is Tanzania’s second largest park covering an area of 12,950 sq km. It has one of the largest elephant populations – around 12,000 – apart from buffalo, kudu, gazelles, wild dogs, ostriches, cheetahs, roan, sable, hippo, crocodile and more than 400 different types of birds, especially along the Great Ruaha River. This is a very scenic park consisting of undulating plateau with kopjes and baobabs and mountains and sand rivers bisecting it. Another gem like Selous as it less visited and thereby offers a more genuine wild bush experience.

Selous Game Reserve

Established in 1896, this is a World Heritage Site and the largest game reserve in Africa covering an area of 50,000 sq km, consisting of grassland, miombo woodland, and borassus palm forest. It got its name in 1922 after the British explorer Frederick Courtney Selous died here in WW1. The reserve is watered by the Rufiji and Great Ruaha rivers which create a vast inland delta. The park is home to large populations of the Big Five as well as hippos, zebra, wildebeest, impala, sable, kudu, Sharpe’s grysbok, crocodiles, wild dogs and close to 400 species of birds including purple crested turacos, Pel’s fishing owls and ashy starlings. Owing to the size of the park it is refreshingly remote and it is recommended to stay for a minimum period of a week here. One can do boat as well as walking safaris here under supervision.

Serengeti National Park

Derived from the Masai word "Seringet", the name means "endless plains" in the Maa language.
The iconic park whose name means “Endless Plains” is a symbol of Africa. It covers 14,763 sq km and lies between the Ngorongoro in the south east and Lake Victoria in the North West, and adjoins Kenya’s Masai Mara on the north. The eastern side is open grassland dotted with rocky outcrops called ‘kopjes’, while to the north and west the park is grassland with rolling hills and sliced by many rivers like the Seronera, Mbalageti and the Grumeti. Kopjes are a mini ecosystem in themselves providing shelter to different species of animals, reptiles, birds and plants. The open grasslands are a haven for millions of plains animals and is known for its Annual Wildebeest Migration, a clockwise movement of over a million wildebeest and zebra right around the Serengeti which reaches the Masai Mara in and around July-Aug and returns to the Serengeti by Oct-Nov. This is a World Heritage Site. Animals here include the big five, giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, elands, gazelles, impalas, reedbucks, warhogs, klipspringers, cheetahs, hyenas, jackals, genets, servals, etc and huge variety of birds eg ostriches, hornbills, starlings, warblers, vultures, eagles, buzzards, goshawks, etc. Alongwith Kenya’s Masai Mara and the Ngorongoro Crater, this is amongst the most visited wildlife areas on the planet and a must on any itinerary in Tanzania.

Tarangire National Park

The name is derived from the Mbugwe word meaning "meandering" referring to the Tarangire River that follows a circuitous route through the park. This is possibly the most rejuvenating park in Northern Tanzania given its relative remoteness and its lush vegetation which sustains wildlife year round. The park covers an area of 2,600 sq km and is associated with large elephant herds, enormous baobab trees (reminds one of Tsavo in Kenya) and umbrella acacias. Animals abound year round and even in the rainy season there is plenty of game, though the best season is around Aug-Oct, when an migration of zebra and wildebeest takes place. The Tarangire River, a perennial water source and the gigantic Silale swamp is the main reason for this self-sustaining ecosystem. Resident species include elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo, fringe eared oryx, giraffe, hartebeest, steenbok, impala, klipspringer, dik-dik, and more than 300 species of birds eg red-necked and yellow necked spurfowl, orange bellied parrots, Fisher’s and yellow collared lovebirds, go-away birds, magpie shrikes, ashy starlings, slate coloured boubous, etc.