Overview
Location: 2 hours from Arusha Town and almost directly between Arusha and Ngorongoro Crater.
Animals: Though cheetahs are rare, you’ll find pretty much all the animals you will see on safari except rhinos. Has more than 550 bird species!
Activities: Game Drives, Guided Walks (from selected accommodations only) and Night Game Drives (from selected accommodations only)
Description
Tarangire is located 118km (75miles) southwest of Arusha. The dry season is a spectacular time to visit Tarangire, the day after day of cloudless skies seem to suck all the moisture from the landscape, turning the waving grasses to platinum blonde, brittle as straw and it is at this time of the year when the thirsty elephants and antelopes marching hundreds of kilometers to Tarangire river, a mere permanent water source that flows across the length of the park chocked with wildlife..
In search of underground springs herds of three hundred elephants dig in the damp earth of the riverbed while wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, and gazelle mingle with a rare species such as eland and Oryx around each shrinking lagoon. Python climb into shade of the trees that line Tarangire’s massive southern swamps and hang there like giant malignant fruit coils neatly arranged over the branches in a perfect sphere. it is during the dry season when Tarangire enjoys the greatest concentration of wildlife ever present to fascinate visitors with their grace, intelligence and majesty.
Bird Watching
Tarangire is a great birdwatching site with more than 500 species recorded. The swamps, tinged green year round, have the most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world. It also harbors several dry country bird species at the extremity of their range, like the pied babbler and vulturine guinea fowl , the famous Stocking-thighed Ostrich(the world’s largest bird), the Kori Bustard, the heaviest flying bird in the world, and smaller groups of hornbills.
Commonly seen birds are also Lilac-breasted rolers, barbet and mousebirds, striped swallows and starlings, swifts, hammerkops, bee eaters, cordon bleus and owls plovers.It is also a home of over 50 raptor species such as the Bateleur eagles, the Steppe Eagles (which migrate from Russia), the giant Lappet-faced Vultures and the tiny Pigmy Falcon,You can also see the three endangered bird species of Tanzania: Rufous-tailed weaver, Ashy starling and Yellow-collared Lovebird. The swampy floodplains in Tarangire’s southern and eastern part are important breeding grounds for the Eurasian migrants. Tarangire’s woodlands are inhabited by Hoopoes, Hornbills, White-bellied Go-away-bird and Brown parrots.
