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Tanzania National Parks and Reserves
Arusha National Park
The park has three distinct zones: Ngurdoto Crater (often discribed
as a mini Ngorongoro), the Momella Lakes, a group of shallow
alkaline lakes fed by underground streams, and Mount Meru, one of
the most rewarding mountains to climb in Africa.Animals here include
buffalo, elephant, hippo, giraffe, zebra and a variety of antelope,
blue monkey and black and white colobus monkey, leopard and hyena.
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Gombe Stream National Park
Gombe is the smallest of Tanzania's national parks, but thanks to
Dr. Jane Goodall, one of the best known. Since 1960, Goodall and
colleagues have lived among the Gombe chimpanzees, making
significant contributions to the study of primates. Travel to the
Park is by water only from Ujiji or Kigoma. The forests are alive
with the famous chimpanzee, red colobus and red-tail and blue
monkeys. You can also spot bushbuck and bushpig and grey duiker. The
lake shore is home to the pied and giant kingfishers, the crowned
eagle, the African broadbill, Ross's turaco and the trumpeter
hornbill.
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Katavi National Park
Katavi National Park lies south of the Mahale Mountains on a high
flood plain surrounding Lake Katavi. It is one of the most difficult
Parks to reach and is strictly for those of an adventurous spirit,
but it has excellent game viewing with a real wilderness atmosphere.
July to October are the best months to visit the Park. The water of
the Park shelters crocodile, hippo and large flocks of pelicans. The
diverse woodland, acacia bush, lakes and swamps have attracted over
400 species of birds. Leopard, lion, elephant, eland, roan and sable
antelopes, southern reedbuck and topi inhabit the short grasses and
thickets. Kitavi is also home to one of the largest herds of
buffalo, with as many as 1,600 animals.
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Kilimanjaro National Park
Kilimanjaro National Park takes in the area above the 8,850 feet, or
2,700 meters, on the mountain. It includes the moorland and highland
zones, Shira Plateau, Kibo and Mawenzi peaks. In addition, the Park
has six corridors or rights of way through the Kilimanjaro Forest
Reserve. The Forest Reserve, which is also a Game Reserve, was
established in 1921; the Park was established in 1973 and officially
opened in 1977.
Kilimanjaro stands a scant 205 miles south of the equator, on the
northern boundary of Tanzania. Its location on an open plain close
to the Indian Ocean, and its great size and height strongly
influence the climate, vegetation, animal life and the climbing
conditions. It is made up of three extinct volcanoes: Kibo 19,340
feet (5,895 meters), Mawenzi 16,896 feet (5,149 meters); and Shira
13,000 feet (3,962 meters).
Even though you can climb throughout the year, January, February and
September are the best months, with July, August, November and
December also being good.Equatorial to arctic conditions are present
on Kilimanjaro. The range begins with the warm, dry plains with
average temperatures of 850F, ascends through a wide belt of wet
tropical forest, through zones with generally decreasing
temperatures and rainfall, to the summit where there is permanent
ice and below freezing temperatures.The rainiest period is March to
June. The fact that most months of the year have so few rainy days
makes it possible to climb in relatively good conditions year round.
During the rainy period of March to May, clouds tend to pile up and
over the summit, dropping snow on top and rain at the base.
Visibility can be limited by cloud cover even when no rain falls.
The temperature at this time of year is relatively warm. The dry
season, beginning in late June and through July can be very cold at
night, but usually is clear of clouds. August and September are also
cool and can have completely clear days, but usually a dripping
cloud belt girdles the mountain above the forest and moorland. The
summit can be totally clear and the successful climber looks down on
a vast sea of clouds with distant mountain peaks poking through like
islands. The shorter rainy period of October to December often has
thunderstorms that pass over the mountain, dropping rain as they go.
Typically the clouds disappear in the evening, leaving nights and
mornings clear with excellent visibility. January and February are
usually dry, warm and clear with brief rain showers which make for
good climbing conditions.
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Mahale Mountains Park
Mahale Mountains, like Gombe, are home to some of the last remaining
wild chimpanzees in Africa. The Park is reached by boat or plane,
both of which are available for charter. May to October is the best
time to visit. There are no roads and all game viewing is done on
foot. Mahale is a unique ecological zone with lowland forest, moist
and dry savannah, miombo and open woodlands. Animals range from
elephant, buffalo, leopard and primates to roan and sable antelopes,
giraffe, kudu, eland, leopard and lion.
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Lake Manyara
Hemingway describes Lake Manyara National Park's magnificent hunting
country in "The Green Hills of Africa". Mahogany, sausage tree and
croton are alive with blue monkeys and vervets. Elephants feed off
fallen fruit while bushbuck, waterbuck, baboons, aardvark, civet,
the shy pangolin and leopard as well as the black rhino, all make
their home in the forest. Manyara is sanctuary to elusive buffalo
and hippo, giraffe, impala, zebra and the famous residents - tree
climbing lions. Lake Manyara itself is a magnet for birdlife and a
kaleidoscope of different species can be found around its shores,
including huge flocks of flamingoes. The park is ideal for a day
trip. A four-wheel drive is recommended during the rains. The dry
season is from June to September and January to February.
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Mikumi National Park
Mikumi, to the north of the Selous, is only 283 km away from dar-Es-Salaam.
The Park was established to protect the environment and resident
animals and is also an important educational centre for students of
ecology and conservation. The Mikumi flood plain is the main feature
of the Park along with the bordering mountain ranges. Animals
commonly found here include lion, eland, hartebeest, buffalo,
wildebeest, giraffe, zebra, hippo and elephant. The Mikumi elephants
are mainly grazers and do not cause tree damage. Lions roam the
Mikumi plains and will take refuge in the branches of trees. Wild
dogs can be seen in packs here.Mikumi's vegetation includes
woodland, swamp and grassland with two water holes, Mkata and
Chamgore. Apart from the saddle-bill stork, hammerkop and malachite
kingfisher, you will also find monitor lizard and a deadly python
inhabiting the pools.
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Ngorongoro Conservation Area
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a huge area containing active
volcanoes, mountains, archeological sites, rolling plains, forests,
lakes, dunes and of course, Ngorongoro Crater and Olduvai Gorge. The
views at the rim of Ngorongoro Crater are sensational. On the crater
floor, grassland blends into swamps, lakes, rivers, woodland and
mountains - all a heaven for wildlife, including the densest
predator population in Africa. The crater is home to up to 25,000
large mammals, mainly grazers - gazelle, buffalo, eland, hartebeest
and warthog. You will not find giraffe as there is not much to eat
at tree level, or topi, because the competition with wildebeest is
too fierce, nor will you find impala. The crater elephants are
strangely, mainly bulls. There are a small number of black rhinos
here too. The birdlife is largely seasonal and is also affected by
the ratio of soda to fresh water in Lake Magadi on the crater floor.
In the northern, remote part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area,
you will find Olmoti and Empakaai Craters, Lake Natron and Oldoinyo
Lengai, Mountain of God, as named by the Maasai. Lake Natron is the
only known breeding ground for East Africa's flamingoes. The ruins
of a terraced stone city and complex irrigation system lie on the
eastern side of Empakaai - the Engakura Ruins. Their origins are a
mystery as there is no tradition of stone building in this part of
Africa.
Olduvai Gorge
Olduvai, more accurately called Oldupai after the wild sisal in the
area, is the site of some of the most important fossil hominid finds
of all time - "Nutcracker Man" or Australopithecus boisei who lived
1.75 million years ago - by Leaky
There is a small informative museum located at the visitor center.
The gorge is a treasure trove of archeological sites filled with
fossils, settlement remains and stone artifacts. Lecture tours are
offered.
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Ruaha National Park
The Kisigio and Rungwa River Game Reserves and Ruaha National Park
total a protected area of 25,600 sq. kilometers. Ruaha is Tanzania's
second largest national park and one of the wildest. Crocodiles,
hippos and clawless otters soak and play in the water and on the
banks of the great Ruaha River. Reedbuck, waterbuck and buffalo
drink, ever watchful for lion, leopard, jackal, spotted hyena and
hunting dog. The grassland borders of the River are home to greater
and lesser kudu, a large elephant population, eland, impala, Grant's
gazelle, dik-dik, zebra, warthog, mongoose, wild cat, porcupine and
the shy civet.There are plenty of Eurasian migrant birds on their
outward and return journeys as well as resident kingfishers,
plovers, hornbills, green wood hoopoes, bee-eaters, sunbirds and
egrets. The best months to go are between July and November when the
animals are concentrated around shrinking water holes.
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The Selous Game Reserve
Tanzania is home to one of the single largest remaining elephant
populations in the world. Most of these elephants are found in the
remote and wildly beautiful Selous Game Reserve, a World Heritage
Site. The name derives from hunter-explorer Frederick Courtenay
Selous, a keen naturalist and conservationist as well as a hunter.
He was killed in the First World War in the Beho Beho region of the
Reserve. Larger than Switzerland in size, the Reserve is the largest
in Africa and is second only to the Serengeti in its concentration
of wildlife. The Reserve has a varied terrain of rolling savannah
woodland, grassland plains and rocky outcrops. Buffalo, crocodile,
hippo and wild dog can also be seen here. The Reserve can be reached
from Dar-Es-Salam by road, air charter, and rail (Tazara) and the
best time to go is in the cool season between the end of June and
the end of October. Walking safaris can be taken from the camps in
the Reserve, in the company of an armed guard.
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Serengeti National Park
The Serengeti is on of the world's last great wildlife refuges. This
vast area of land supports the greatest remaining concentration of
plain game in Africa, on a scale unparalleled anywhere else in the
world. The name comes from the Maasai 'Siringet', meaning endless
plains. Equal in size to Northern Ireland, the Park contains an
estimated three million large animals, most of which take part in a
seasonal migration that is one of nature's wonders. The annual
migration of more than 1.5 million wildebeests as well as hundreds
of thousands of zebras and gazelles is triggered by the rains. The
wet season starts in November and lasts until about May. Generally
the herds congregate and move out at the end of May. Their movement
is a continual search for grass and water - the moving mass of
animals requiring over 4,000 tons of grass each day. The exodus
coincides with the breeding season which causes fights among the
males. As the dry season sets in the herds drift out of the West,
one group to the North, the other north-east heading for the
permanent waters of the northern rivers and the Mara. The
immigration instinct is so strong that animals die in the rivers as
they dive from the banks into the raging waters, to be dispatched by
crocodiles. The survivors concentrate in Kenya's Maasai Mara
National reserve until the grazing there is exhausted, when they
turn south along the eastern and final stage of the migration route.
Before the main exodus, the herds are a spectacular sight, massed in
huge numbers with the weak and crippled at the tail end of the
procession, followed by the patient, vigilent predators. The
vegetation in the Serengeti ranges from the short and long grass
plains in the south, to the acacia savannah in the centre and the
wooded grassland concentrated around tributaries of the Grumeti and
Mara rivers. The western corridor is a region of wooded highland and
extensive plains reaching to the edge of Lake Victoria. The Seronera
Valley in the Serengeti is famous for the abundance lion and leopard
that can usually be seen quite easily. The adult male lions of the
Serengeti have characteristic black manes.
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Tarangire National Park
The permanent water supply of the Park means that during the summer,
the animal population here rivals that of the Serengeti with
wildebeest, zebra, eland, elephant, hartebeest, buffalo, gerenuk,
fringe eared oryx and flocks of birds of many different species.
Prime game viewing months are between September and December.
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