What to see and venture into while at lake manyara national park

Located beneath the cliffs of the Manyara Escarpment, on the edge of the Rift Valley, Lake Manyara National Park offers varied ecosystems, incredible bird life, and breathtaking views.

Wildlife & Africa’s Largest Concentration of African Elephants

Tarangire National Park is home to Tanzania’s largest elephant population, but it’s in Lake Manyara national park that you find Africa’s largest concentration of elephants. Once it comes to seeing elephants in the wild, you’ll find few places that can compete with elephants. The African elephant can be highly enjoyable to observe for extended periods but also physically threatening on account of its gigantic bulk, fierce proclaiming call and unpredictable character. The African elephant weighs 6,000kg and the largest living land animal and has the longest gestation period is 21-22months.The African elephant has got its protective feature called the trunk which it uses to pick leaves from high branches, tear up food, suck water, play wrestling and courtship. One of the rewarding experience is when you spot them wallowing or spraying themselves with water one would not want to miss out this while on a safari to northern Tanzania. Additionally, the park offers excellent opportunities to see mongooses, the lovable Kirk’s dik-dik, hippos, buffaloes, antelopes, gazelles, and large groups of baboons.

Tree-Climbing Lions

The lions of Lake Manyara National Park are a scarcity among their own kind, being some of the only lions in the world to regularly climb trees and use them as places as rest. The fortunate photographers will get the chance to spot and snap these beautiful creatures hanging on the branches of acacia trees. Though researchers are not pretty sure just why the lions here have developed this remarkable habit, nevertheless visitors to the park are the ones who take advantage seeing such unique behavior from such beautiful creatures. Lake Manyara’s famous tree-climbing lions are additional aim to pay a visit to this park. The only kind of their species in the world, they make the earliest mahogany and sophisticated acacias their home during the rainy season, and are a well-known but rather rare feature of the northern park. In addition to the lions, the national park is also habitat to the largest attention of baboons anywhere in the world — a fact that accounts for exciting game viewing of large families of the primates.

Lake Manyara

A lonely lake subject to penetrating vaporization during the arid season, Lake Manyara is a marginally salty lake that is a dwelling to hippopotamus, flamingoes, and a large variety of marine life. Despite its salt concentration, it is harmless for animals to drink and is a common watering hole for the park’s animal population. Walks can engaged along Lake manyara during the dry season because it shrinks to a small size as well as canoe safaris can be done on Lake Manyara during the wet season because it swells to a sizable body of water. It is possible to view different bird species when water is present like Peregrine Falcon, Ruppel’s Griffon, Sacred Ibis, Pied Kingfisher and plenty of flamingoes.

Maji Moto Springs

When visitors wind their way down a bumpy, dusty road through the desert land surrounding Lake Manyara National Park, it might seem questionable that something as attractive and soothing as Maji Moto could exist out here. Yet when the escape comes into view, it’s all worth the long drive. Maji Moto (Swahili word for hot water) is a natural spring bounded by palm and fig trees, an isolated haven of crystal clear waters, sun-dappled shady picnic spots, and matchless beauty. Not so much a hot spring as it is a warm spring, Maji Moto is an unspoiled place for a swim and a picnic lunch.

Warthogs

One of the most familiar and appealing sights of the African savannah is that of a warthog family running off with a characteristic aura of determined casualness, long tails raised stiffly in the air. This remarkably slender, long-legged swine stands up to 80cm high at the shoulder, has a sparsely-haired grey coat that contrasts with its long dorsal mane, large upward curving tusks, and a triangle of callus-like facial warts. Like their native counterparts, warthogs are simple diners, eating anything from fruits and crops to flesh and new-born animals, but they are most limited to roots and bulbs, which are rooted out using the tusk and elongated snout. When in danger, warthogs rear into their hidden burrows, brutal tusks pointing outward to discourage any intruder from following. They sometimes dig the burrows themselves but more often appropriate then from other burrowing animals thus presenting a remarkably view to the visitors.

Lake Manyara national park offers breathtaking scenery that enables tourists to sit and loosen up as they get enjoyment from the clear views of the various large animals living here. Some of the additional safari adventure activities you can enjoy within Lake Manyara National Park include: swimming, photographing, canoeing, cultural activities, horse riding, safari walks and cycling. Best of all, this park can be visited which ever time of the year and you will be rewarded with wonderful views of wildlife. ‘Mto Wa Mbu’ found close to the park boundaries and it’s here that most of the tourists make stops to buy some souvenirs such as African carvings in the local crafts market. Important to note is that this is the ideal place to try your bargaining skills since you can get some of the items at a lower price than their asking price hence enabling you to save some money.