Serengeti National Park
The most famous game park in the world. You can see
just about everything here. Gnus (wildebeest), Zebra and Gazelle are in
great abundance. The big cats (lions, cheetah and leopard) are also well
represented here. You will almost assuredly see lions, and if your
driver/tracker is skilled enough, you will also see cheetah. The
wildebeest migration of the Serengeti is one of life's great dramas and
it provides the framework in which all other wildlife interaction takes
place. Lion prides go hungry for months at a time, territories
shift, hyenas follow the gnus. Virtually no part of life in
the Serengeti is untouched by the migration.
Elephants are not found in large
numbers in the Serengeti.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area
A World Heritage Site. Chances
are, if you have watched a documentary on African wildlife, it was probably
filmed here. Ngorongoro crater is called the Noah's Ark of Africa.
The crater is teeming with every kind of wildlife. Most people compare
it to a Zoo, since you can park your land rover in one place, and see black
rhinos and buffalo out one side of the truck, wildebeest and elephant in
another direction, lions in another, and cheetahs in another.
Seriously, if you spend a full day at
Ngorongoro crater and don't see rhinos, lions, hyenas, elephants, buffalo, and
hippos, you should shoot your driver!
Lake Manyara National Park
There is a pride of lions here that
is famous for climbing trees. To be honest, I have never spoken to
anyone who has actually seen one of the "Tree Climbing Lions of
Manyara". But the rumour of them has spread, and Lake Manyara National
Park is now a must-see location on the safari circuit. The location of
Lake Manyara, halfway between Arusha and Ngorongoro, is the more likely reason
why safari operators spend a day here. It's an uncomfortable eight hour
drive from Arusha to the Serengeti, and Lake Manyara is a good place to stop
and take a breather.
Other wildlife includes:
elephant, buffalo, wildebeest, hippos, hyenas, gazelles.
Tarangire National Park
Elephants are the wildlife attraction
here. This park is due South from Arusha, and is not on the road from
Arusha to the Serengeti. As such, it is a less popular
destination. Supposedly, Tarangire has a lot of baobob trees, and if
you're looking for that "typical" African landscape, this is an ideal place to
come.
Arusha National Park
Elephants, giraffes and
buffalo. This small park has a dense population of wildlife.
Similar to Ngorongoro crater, Arusha N.P is a self-contained ecosystem that
has natural boundaries to protect the animals. Most people come to
Arusha N.P to climb Mt. Meru. Due to the large number of elephants and
buffalo, climbers must have an armed ranger with them at all times. We
saw evidence of Buffalo at 12,000 ft. ASL.
Zanzibar and Pemba Islands
Vast, heretofore untouched coral
reefs. The north and east shores of Zanzibar, and the entire shorline of
Pemba support shallow reefs with excellent visibility. Due to the
wonderfully warm temperature of the Indian Ocean water, even my wife enjoyed
diving there.
Selous Game Reserve
The largest game reserve in the
world. It's remoteness makes it an expensive, and little-visited
park. But this reserve is the motherlode of all wildlife parks.
Conservative estimates put the elephant population between 30,000 and
50,000. Other wildlife, such as lions, leopards, buffalo and giraffe are
also very common.
The Selous is not a national
park. It is a game reserve. What this means, is that nature
photographers will have to share space with hunters, who pay as much as
$20,000 per person to hunt a lion, an elephant or a buffalo. Before you
protest the horrible injustice of destroying paradise with a rifle, keep in
mind that Tanzania is one of the poorest countries on earth, and hunting
tourism is a highly regulated industry. The extremely high fees
associated with hunting in the Selous help feed tens of thousands
of people in Tanzania who would otherwise starve. In fact, the
Selous is situated in prime agricultural land, that could be cleared
for sugar cane or coffee plantations (cash crops), if the Tanzanian
government wasn't so supportive of self-sufficient eco-tourism.
In short, without
hunting, the Selous--and every creature within it--wouldn't
exist.
Mkuzi National Park
Stradling the road from Dar Es Salaam
to Mbeya, Mkuzi is not a popular game park. Zebra, giraffe, elephant,
gazelle, and buffalo can all be seen here. There are two reasons for the
small crowds: Mkuzi is truly in the middle of nowhere,
and there is not a large population of big cats or hyena.
