|
|
Tarangire Ecosystem
Tarangire National Park - Contents Table
Tarangire National Park is 1020 square miles (2642 square kilometers) in size and is cushioned around 4 game control areas namely: Lolkisale and Simanjiro in the East, Mkungenero in the South, Kwakuchinja in the west and the Mto wa Mbu in the North. The existence of these game control areas would go unnoticed for first time visitors but as common visitors to the park, one often notices the migration of large herds of elephants coming from the south entering the park to drink from the main water artery: The Tarangire River.
Tarangire National Park's ecosystem extends over 10 times the size of the park allowing guests who want a discerning experience to visit the area in an uncommon approach. Few camps and lodges have taken this approach, which in our experience is good because it allows a mix of guests to see two parts of the Tarangire, stay at accommodations that support the Maasai people who directly own and benefit from a guests stay, as well as participate in activities such as walking safaris and night game driving, all while making certain that the environment is preserved.
Wildlife viewing can be done from 3 different experiences: Day game driving in the Tarangire National Park, night game driving in the Tarangire Conservation Area and walking safaris with Oliver's Camp. Walking safari and night game driving are not permitted in the park. The park for wildlife management reasons is sectioned into seven different areas in four different zones, with 75% of the park being sanctioned for visiting guests and the rest 25% having no road networks. Upon entering the park, you enter the area called Lemiyon with plenty of bird activity and herds of zebras and antelopes.
Crossing a few hundred meters leads you to point where guests, if staying at the Tarangire Safari Lodge can watch the reed bucks, elephants, leopards, wildebeests, elephants adorn the panoramic landscape. If continuing further to the Tarangire Sopa Lodge, one crosses over the Engelhard Bridge, where AfricanMecca guests can stop and checkout the varied bird species on the stream which include the Saddle Bill Stork, Pelicans, and Marabou Storks trampling over the firm soils of the water waiting for the occasional fish, tadpoles and other organisms to swim by. Leading further in to the heart of the Tarangire, massive herds of elephants are seen, along side the zebra, buffalos, waterbucks and Elands, the biggest in the antelope family.
In relation to the botanical experience, Tarangire National Park has mixed vegetation of plain grasslands, Baobab, Acacia, Yellow Fever, Sausage, Fig, Candelebra and Tamarind trees. The vegetations aid each particular creature, whether it is the lions that used the plains grass to lie low, or the pythons twirled around the branch of a tree or the elephants having a field day in the swamps at Gursi and Silale.
For geologists, Tarangire provides a good sample of what happened around the borders of the Great Rift Valley thousands of years ago. This is evident in the existence of 3 main types of rock formations, namely the very famous Black Cotton Soil (also called), red alluvial deposits and the pre-cambrian rocks. The Black Cotton Soil can be experienced during the rain days, when precipitation makes the soil retain the water like a slithering and flexible clay pot than can twist and turn without causing a reduction in the water level; the red soils can be see at the base and banks of the rivers which carries the deposit to lower level of the areas; and lastly, the pre Cambrian rocks are the hills seen in the distance. With climatic changes occurring over the centuries, these hills are reduced to smaller mounds which serve as a birds eye for the predators such as lions to perch themselves on.
Concluding On Tarangire National Park
Tarangire's unique bio-diversity of landscape, wildlife and varying cultural appeal
makes it a must visit on the northern Tanzania safari circuit.
Previous Section - Introducing Tarangire National Park
View Tarangire Lodges & Camps
Book Tarangire Lodges & Camps
|