Lake Manyara National Park

Lake Manyara National Park is a beautiful and incredibly diverse park for its size (only 325 square kilometres/125 square miles) and is well known for its tree-climbing lions, elephants and large troops of baboons. The Park is home to an amazing variety of birds and animals and its lush green jungle habitat is of stark contrast to other parks in Tanzania.

Contrasting with the intimacy of the forest is the grassy floodplain and its expansive views eastward, across the alkaline lake, to the jagged blue volcanic peaks that rise from the endless Maasai Steppes. Large buffalo, wildebeest and zebra herds congregate on these grassy plains, as do giraffes – some so dark in coloration that they appear to be black from a distance.

Inland of the floodplain, a narrow belt of acacia woodland is the favoured haunt of Manyara’s legendary tree-climbing lions and impressively tusked elephants. Squadrons of banded mongoose dart between the acacias, while the diminutive Kirk’s dik-dik forages in their shade. Pairs of klipspringer are often seen silhouetted on the rocks above a field of searing hot springs that steams and bubbles adjacent to the lakeshore in the far south of the park.

Much of the park often appears to be in a heat haze created by the soda lake - Lake Manyara. The lake attracts considerable birdlife, and its surrounding terrain contains such a rich mosaic of different habitats that it supports a large number of animals

Fish-eating birds inhabiting the lake include pelicans, storks, cormorants and Egyptian geese. Flamingoes colour the lake pink as they arrive to feed at the lake during their migration. One unforgettable sight is a giant flock of red billed quelea who gather in their thousands and waft over the water like a giant swarm of insects.

Size: 330 sq km (127 sq miles), of which up to 200 sq km (77 sq miles) is lake when water levels are high.