Brief Description About Tanzania Safaris
Tanzania ranks among the world’s top countries in protection of wildlife habitat, having declared over a third of the national’s total land base area as [protected areas. These protected areas represent a mixture of national parks, game reserves, marine parks and forest reserves.
Below some of the major national parks;
Arusha National Park
This park covers Mountain Meru in the Arusha region of North Eastern Tanzania. The park is small but varied with spectacular landscapes in the west, the Meru crater tunnels the Jekukumia River. The peak of Mountain Meru lies on its rim. Ngudoto crater in the south eastern is grassland. The shallow alkaline momella lakes in the north east have varying algal colors and are known for their wading birds.
The park is just a few kilometers north east of Arusha and has a rich variety of wildlife. The common animals include Giraffe, Cape Buffalo, Zebra, Warthog, the Black and White Colobus Monkey, the Blue monkey, Flamingo, Elephants and Lions.
Kilimanjaro National Park.
This park is located 300 kilometers south of the equator and in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. It includes them whole of Mountain Kilimanjaro above the tree line and the surrounding Montane forest. A variety of animals are found in this park like Kilimanjaro tree hyrax, the Grey duiker, Rodents, Bushbucks, Red duiker, Cape Buffalos, Elephants, Blue monkeys, Western black and White colobuses, Bush babies and Leopards.
Lake Mangara National Park.
This National Park is located both in Arusha Region and Mangara Region, Tanzania. The majority of the land area of the park is a narrow strip running between the Gregory rift wall to the west and Lake Mangara to the East.
It is well known for the Flamingos that inhabit the Lake and Leopards, East African Lions, Cheetahs, Elephants, Blue monkeys, Gazelles, Hippopotamus, Masai Giraffe, Impalas and Zebras inhabit this Park.
Serengeti National Park.
This National Park is in the Serengeti ecosystem in the Mara and Simiyu Regions. It is famous for its annual migration of over 1.5 million white bearded wildebeest, Zebras, Gazelles, Impala, Hartebeest, Topi, Buffalo, Waterbuck, Elephant, and Giraffe and for its numerous Crocodile and Honey badges and Lions.
The name ‘Serengeti’ is an approximation of the word used by the masai to describe the area, Serengeti which means the place where land runs on forever.
The Park is Tanzania’s oldest National Park and remains the flagship of the country’s tourism industry.
Gombe Stream National Park
This National Park is located in Western Kigoma Region, Tanzania, 10 miles north of Kigoma, and the capital of Kigoma Region. It is one of the smallest National Parks in Tanzania with only 13.5 square miles of protected land along the hills of the Eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. The terrain is distinguished by steep valleys and the forest vegetation ranges from grassland to woodland to Tropical rainforest.
Accessible only by boat, the Park is most famous as the location where Jane Goodall pioneered her behavioral research conducted on the Chimpanzees other primates inhabiting this park include Olive Baboons, Red colobus, Red tailed monkeys, Blue monkeys, Bush pigs, Snakes, Occasional hippopotamus and Leopards. It has 441 recorded bird species with 216 forest birds and 80 Central African species. National Park which is an exceptionally exciting destination for Birds and Primate watches.
