Tarangire National Park

Tarangire National Park has some of the highest population density of elephants as compared to anywhere in Tanzania, and its sparse vegetation, strewn with baobab and acacia trees, makes it a beautiful and distinctive location to visit.

Located just a few hours drive from the town of Arusha, Tarangire is a popular stop for people travelling through the northern safari circuit on their way to Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. The park extends into two game controlled areas and the wildlife is allowed to move freely throughout.

Before the rains, droves of gazelles, wildebeests, zebras, and giraffes migrate to Tarangire National Park’s scrub plains where the last grazing land still remains. Tarangire offers an unparalleled game viewing, and during the dry season, elephants abound. Families of the pachyderms play around the ancient trunks of baobab trees and strip acacia bark from the thorn trees for their afternoon meal. Breathtaking views of the Maasai Steppe and the mountains in the south make a stopover at Tarangire a memorable experience.

Herds of up to 300 elephants scratch the dry river bed for underground streams, while migratory wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, hartebeest and eland crowd the shrinking lagoons. It’s the greatest concentration of wildlife outside the Serengeti ecosystem – a smorgasbord for predators – and the one place in Tanzania where dry-country antelope such as the stately fringe-eared oryx and peculiar long-necked gerenuk are regularly observed.

During the rainy season, the seasonal visitors scatter over a 20,000 sq km (12,500 sq miles) range until they exhaust the green plains and the river calls once more. But Tarangire’s mobs of elephant are easily encountered, wet or dry. The swamps, tinged green year-round, are the focus for 550 bird varieties, the most breeding species in one habitat anywhere in the world.

On drier ground, you find the Kori bustard, the heaviest flying bird; the stocking-thighed ostrich, the world’s largest bird; and small parties of ground hornbills blustering like turkeys.

Activities in Tarangire National Park

Game drive

It depends on the visitor’s interest. Tarangire game drive can be done either in the morning, afternoon, evening, or the whole day. The entire day game drive entails driving around the park with a parked lunch on which visitors can eat while on the move. On the way to a game drive, visitors get a chance to enjoy the prodigious attractions available in the park, such as wildlife, especially large groups of elephants, outstanding beauty of nature, including baobab trees for botanists.

Bird watching

Ostriches, Kori bustards, hornbills, rufous-tailed weavers, and harsh starlings are some of the bird species you may encounter during your bird watching trip to Tarangire National Park. In fact, the park is full of different bird species, not only in abundance but also in diversity. Migratory birds from different parts of the world are present in the park, and you may encounter some of them around the swamp floodplains during your visit to Tarangire. Tarangire has never been a regrettable trip for bird lovers.

Nature walks

This is a unique kind of adventure as visitors get to see and view wild animals at a very close distance. No disturbance to animals as walking safari is quieter and cooler compared to game drive and this creates an advantage for visitors to get more close to wildlife. It’s an incredible kind of activity that makes visitors feel awesome. Visitors feel and smell the real taste of being in the bush, and this adds credit to making a trip notable. But also don’t forget, to make visitors comfortable and ensure their safety during nature walks, they should be accompanied by an armed ranger.

Cultural visit

If you want to know the feeling of interacting with local people, Tarangire National Park is one of the parks where visitors get a chance to interact and feel like they are also local. Participating in local activities such as participating in and enjoying traditional dance, tasting local food, and even buying their local commodities and donating a little amount to them is an outstanding moment you will never ever forget. Maasai culture is mainly a cultural tourism experience and activity in Tarangire National Park.

Best time to visit Tarangire national park

Tarangire national park can be visited all year round though the best time is during the dry season also known as the peak season in the months of June to October and December to February. During the dry season there is little rainfall in the park therefore roads to Tarangire national park will be easily accessible, vegetation will be thin which helps you to clearly view animals and most wildlife species will gather around the water sources to drink water hence offering breathtaking wildlife views and also an opportunity to take incredible photos.

Tarangire national park can also be visited in the wet season also known as the low season during the months of March to April and November because that’s the best time for bird watching when bird lovers will be able to spot colorful and migratory bird species from Europe and North Africa.

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