Ngorongoro National Park
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a UNESCO-protected World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve. It is a pioneering experiment in multi-purpose land use where people (the Maasai), their livestock, and wildlife coexist and share the same protected habitat. The craters of Ngorongoro and Empakai are reserved exclusively for wildlife, while the rest of the conservation area is shared by wildlife, people, and livestock.
The Maasai, the main resident of Ngorongoro, are pastoralists who move widely with their herds of cattle, sheep, goat, and donkeys in search of pasture and water. In recent years, the Maasai have been encouraged to work on the land and supplement their traditional diet of milk and meat.
The Ngorongoro Crater, which is the central attraction in the area, is the largest caldera in the world that has its walls intact. The Ngorongoro Crater floor, a sheer drop of 610 meters below the crater rim, has an area of about 300 square kilometers, with a diameter of 19 kilometers. The sight of the Ngorongoro Crater is simply stunning. “There is nothing with which to compare. It is one of the wonders of the world….” once wrote Professor Bernard Grzimek.
The crater floor is home to tens of thousands of plains animals, including wildebeest, zebra, gazelles, elands, and a large predator population of lions, hyena, and jackal which can all be viewed at close quarters. The rare black rhino can be viewed there, and if you are lucky, you can see cheetah and leopard.
The rain season is between November and May. The altitude at the crater rim is about 2,286 meters above sea level, and temperatures can get quite chilly in the evening, especially between May to September.
Serengeti National Park
A World Heritage Site and recently proclaimed a world-wide wonder, Serengeti National Park is undoubtedly one of the most famous wildlife sanctuaries in the world. The park is located some 320 kilometers to the northwest of Arusha, lying in a high plateau between the Ngorongoro highlands and the Kenya - Tanzania border, and extending almost to Lake Victoria to the west, covering a total area of 14,763 square kilometers.
Aptly named “endless plains” by the Maasai people, you will immediately experience the vastness as you enter the southeastern plains of the park from Ngorongoro. Declared a protected area in 1921 and gazetted as national park in 1951, Serengeti is the oldest national park in Tanzania.
The principal features of the Serengeti are the short and long grass plains in the south and east, the acacia savanna in the central areas, the hilly and densely wooded areas in the north, and the extensive woodland in the west. There is a variety of scenery, which includes the plains, lakes, hills, and the rock outcrops called kopjes. The main game drive areas in the Serengeti are the Seronera Valley, the Western Corridor, and northern Serengeti.
The Seronera Valley in central Serengeti, endowed with permanent surface water, attract a large concentration of wildlife throughout the year. Common animals that can be seen there are lions, buffaloes, impalas, hippos, waterbucks, elephants, cheetahs, the leopard, and over 400 species of birds. Serengeti provides sanctuary to the highest concentration of plains animals in the world.
Lake Manyara National Park
Located 125 kilometers west of Arusha Town, on the foot of the wall of the Great Rift Valley, Lake Manyara National Park is one of the oldest and most popular sanctuaries in East Africa. The park has a large variety of habitats, making it possible to support a wealth of wildlife in its small area.
The main habitats include the shallow soda lake itself which occupies 77% of the national park total area of 330 square kilometers, the ground water forest, open grassland, acacia woodland, and the rift wall. The most famous spectacle in the park is the tree-climbing lions, which are occasionally seen along branches of acacia trees. Other animals found in the park include buffalo, elephants, leopards, baboons, impala, giraffes, zebra, wildebeest, ostrich, and hippos.
Popularly referred to as an ornithologist’s paradise, Lake Manyara National Park contains over 400 bird species found in most savanna and river habitats in East Africa. Common water birds to be seen there are pelicans, spoonbills, Egyptian geese, and the migratory flamingos, which arrive in hundreds of thousands creating one of Africa’s great natural sights over the soda lake.
