Tarangire

Tarangire National Park is one of the great secrets of the Tanzanian Northern Circuit. With its 2,850 km² (the country's sixth-largest national park), it occupies a strategic position south-east of Lake Manyara and 130 km south-west of Arusha — 2h30 to 3h by road, making it often the first stop of a classic Northern Circuit. Yet it remains relatively underestimated compared to the neighbouring Serengeti and Ngorongoro, while offering some of Tanzania's most striking spectacles: the largest elephant population in the north (estimated at 2,500 individuals), an iconic landscape of giant baobabs (some over 1,000 years old), and exceptional bird biodiversity (over 550 species, one of East Africa's richest avifaunas).

The ecological particularity of Tarangire is the Tarangire River that crosses the park from west to east for nearly 200 km, the only permanent water source in the region during the dry season. This singularity creates a spectacular phenomenon: during the long dry season (June-October), herds of elephants, wildebeest, zebras, buffalo, oryx and impalas migrate from the surrounding Masai Steppe (a vast 35,000 km² semi-arid plain extending southward) to drink at the river. Animal density around the river then becomes extraordinary — it's possible to observe more than 300 elephants at a single point on the banks.

The baobabs (Adansonia digitata) are the visual signature of Tarangire. The park shelters one of East Africa's most beautiful concentrations, with giant specimens reaching 30 metres in diameter at the base and several hundreds or even a thousand years old. These iconic trees, sometimes called 'upside-down trees', store up to 130,000 litres of water in their spongy trunk.

The wildlife of Tarangire is extremely rich. Beyond elephants (estimated population of 2,500, one of the most densely distributed in the world), the park shelters: lions (estimated population of 200, remarkable behaviour: Tarangire lions have learned to climb trees), leopards (present but discreet), cheetahs (rare), wild dogs (very rare), hyenas (spotted and striped), giraffes (Maasai), zebras, blue wildebeest, oryx (remarkable species, rare in Serengeti), thicket antelopes (gerenuk, kudu). The avifauna is exceptional: over 550 species recorded.