TARANGIRE NATIONAL PARK
Ranking as the 6th largest National Park in Tanzania and covering an area of 2,600 square kilometers, The Tarangire
National Park is most popular for its large elephant herds and mini-wildlife migration that takes place during the dry
season which sees about 250,000 animals enter the park. Located slightly off the popular northern Tanzania Safari
Circuit, the park lies between the meadows of Masai Steppe to the south east and the lakes of the Great Rift Valley to
the north and west. Within the northern part of Tarangire is the permanent River Tarangire also known as the life-line
of the park particularly in the dry season when most of the region is totally dry. This flows northwards until it exits
the park in the northwestern corner to pour into Lake Burungi. There are a number of wide swamps which dry into green
plains during the dry season in the south.
The permanent Tarangire River is the most dominant feature here and it’s after this river that the park was named. there
are a number of large swamps that feed off some of its tributaries however, these are usually dry for most of the year
but get very impassable during the rains .The Tarangire park is usually very dry, in fact drier than the Serengeti,
however its vegetation is much more green especially with lots of elephant grass, vast areas with mixed acacia woodlands
and some of the wonderful ribbons of the aquatic forest not to forget the giant baobab tree that can live up to 600
years storing between 300 and 900 liters of water
Because Tarangire is manly a seasonaL national park, its wildlife differ depending on the season and also considering
that It is part of a bigger ecosystem. As earlier mentioned, the dry season is the best time to visit Tarangire and you
will be able to encounter various animals. This park is home to one of the largeset elephant populations in Africa with
several herds of up to 300 members per herd. In addition, there are large numbers of impalas, elands, buffaloes,
giraffes, Bohor reedbuck, Coke’s hartebeest, Thompson’s gazelle, the greater and lesser kudu and on rare occasions, the
unusual gerenuk and fringe –eared Oryx are also seen. A few black rhinos are also thought to be still present in this
park. You will obviously see big numbers of elephants gather here as well as the wildebeests and zebras. Among the other
common animals in the Tarangire are the leopards, lions, hyenas, and cheetah that seem to be popular within the southern
open areas. The wild dogs are only seen once in a while
The birds within the Tarangire are also quite many, there are over 545 species that have been identified here. The
stunning yellow collared lovebirds and the shy starlings are in plenty here in addition to other species.
