Tarangire
At 2,600kmē, Mountaineers Expeditions
& Safaris Ltd will take you to visit Tarangire which is far from being
the biggest of the Tanzanian parks, but its unrivalled landscape of open
plains, dotted with thousands of baobabs, is unforgettable. About 120kms
south of Arusha on the Dodoma road, Tarangire rivals the Serengeti for
the size of the game herds that congregate here at peak season (June to
November). This is when many of the animals crowd around the only source
of permanent water in the park, the Tarangire River. This is also the
best place in Tanzania to see really big herds of elephant - up to 300
at a time.
Tarangire National Park contains
nine different vegetation zones, each supporting distinct types of wildlife.
The park is named after the Tarangire River that runs through the center
of the park providing the only permanent water source in the area. Tarangire
is thus a dry season habitat (between July and November) because of the
perennial water in the Tarangire River that attracts wildlife from much
of the Northern Circuit ecosystems beginning in August.
By October, the park is full, the
population swelled by mini-migrations of wildebeest and zebra that join
the vast herds of elephant at the water holes. However, there is a permanent
and sizeable resident population throughout the year, including all the
predators (lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena and hunting dog), elephant and
some mammals rarely seen in the other parks of the Northern Circuit, such
as Kudu and fringe-eared Oryx.
Tarangire is another park known
for its tree-climbing lions, and for its very big herds of buffalo. This
is one of Africa's little-known gems and should be on the itinerary of
all lovers of wilderness and solitude. The game numbers are staggering:
30,000 zebra, 25,000 wildebeest, 5,000 buffalo, 3,000 elephant, 2,500
Maasai giraffe and over 1,000 fringe-eared oryx (gemsbok). Predators include
lion, cheetah and leopard, and birders will want to look out for the endemic
ashy starling, rufous-tailed weaver and black-collared lovebirds.
