Lake Manyara National Park

Lake Manyara National Park

This park is known for its large elephant population. The big cats are present, but not seen that easily. The forest patch is home to habituated troops of olive baboon and blue monkey. Buffalo, giraffe and several antelope species are easily encountered on a drive. Lake Manyara is a shallow, alkaline lake at the base of the Western Rift Valley escarpment. The park has a remarkable variety of habitats in a small area. The park entrance leads to a beautiful groundwater forest. Other habitats include the grassy floodplain, rocky escarpment and acacia woodland, all of which can be covered in a half-day visit. Deeper into the park a visit to the hot springs (Majo Moto) is recommended.

Wildlife Highlights: Manyara National Park is a sanctuary for Elephant, Cape buffalo, Lion, hippopotamus, impala, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, bushbuck, leopard, baboon, lesser flamingo, greater flamingo, white pelican, yellow- billed stork, white-breasted cormorant, palm-nut vulture, Ayres’s hawk-eagle, Nile monitor, cobra & greatest biomass density in the world; tree-climbing lions. Mahogany and sausage trees are alive with blue and vervet monkeys; elephants feed on fallen fruit, and bushbuck, baboons and leopard make their homes in the forest. Manyara's most famous residents are its tree-climbing lions, although these are more difficult to see nowadays.

Birdlife Highlights: Lake Manyara is considered to be one of the best bird-watching locations in Tanzania, with almost 400 recorded species. Birds of prey are represented by a remarkable 46 species including African fish eagles, Ruppell's griffon vultures, Egyptian vultures, palmnut vultures, Verreaux's eagles, crowned eagles, martial eagles, bat hawks and peregrine falcons. Vociferous silvery-cheeked hornbills inhabit evergreen forest and southern ground hornbills stalk the open woodlands in family groups. Among the more colourful bush birds are Fischer's lovebirds, blue-naped mousebirds, grey-headed kingfishers, Abyssinian scimitarbills, red-and-yellow barbets and Peters twinspots. Other more specialist highlights include ashy starlings, slender-tailed nightjars, Abyssinian white-eyes, Pangani longclaws, eastern nicators and long-tailed fiscals.

Best Time to Visit: The area is generally considered to be at its best during the Jun-Oct dry season months, when the animals tend to congregate here, but we tend to include it more during periods when there is less vehicle traffic around, namely Mar-May and Nov-Dec.