Lake Manyara

Location: Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania

Lake Manyara National Park is named after Lake Manyara as it covers most of the park’s lake surface of 230sqkm (89sq mi). The park is located in the northern part of Tanzania in an area of 330sq km (125 sq mi) and 126kms west of Arusha Town. The National Park is well known for the tree climbing lions, soda ash lake which draws thousands of pink flamingos and one of Tanzania’s largest elephant population and spectacular scenery.

Thriving population of the tree climbing lions in the park which are also nocturnal and spend most od their day resting up in the big in trees and descend at sunset when the temperatures are cooler. The only other Park with these lions is Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. Other animals who call this park home include giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, impalas, waterbucks, warthogs, the shy Kik’s dik dik and the Kiplinger who inhabit the ramps of the escarpment.

The scattered forest and escarpments are the habitat of the leopards, a good number of baboons live in this park in sizable troops of up to 200 members. The birdlife lists more the 350 species where large flocks of pelicans and pink flamingoes are usually spotted in the middle of the lake and doubtless one of the best Tanzania Birding Safari locations. The spoonbills, egrets, herons, stalks, and other waders merge around the edges and water meadows.

The evergreen forests and other woodlands serve as a safe haven to species like the crowned eagles, crested guinea fowls, and the silvery cheeked hornbills. The eco-system varies within the park, behind the splendid scenery of the Great Rift Valley’s steep escarpment in the west is the narrow area that safeguards the area between the escarpment and Lake Manyara. The salt deposits facilitate the potential of the alkaline Lake Manyara to expand contract with the seasons.

The grassy floodplains neighbor it so closely while bands of mixed acacia woodlands on the backside. There are patches of ever green forests next to the escarpment that are watered by the perennial underground waters coming from the bottom of the escarpment.

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