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Katavi National Park
Isolated, untrammelled and seldom visited,
Katavi is a true wilderness, providing the few intrepid souls who
make it there with a thrilling taste of Africa as it must have been
a century ago.
Tanzania's third largest national park, it lies
in the remote southwest of the country, within a truncated arm of
the Rift Valley that terminates in the shallow, brooding expanse of
Lake Rukwa.
The bulk of Katavi supports a hypnotically
featureless cover of tangled brachystegia woodland, home to
substantial but elusive populations of the localised eland, sable
and roan antelopes. But the main focus for game viewing within the
park is the Katuma River and associated floodplains such as the
seasonal Lakes Katavi and Chada. During the rainy season, these
lush, marshy lakes are a haven for myriad waterbirds, and they also
support Tanzania’s densest concentrations of hippo and crocodile.
It is during the dry season, when the
floodwaters retreat, that Katavi truly comes into its own. The
Katuma, reduced to a shallow, muddy trickle, forms the only source
of drinking water for miles around, and the flanking floodplains
support game concentrations that defy belief. An estimated 4,000
elephants might converge on the area, together with several herds of
1,000-plus buffalo, while an abundance of giraffe, zebra, impala and
reedbuck provide easy pickings for the numerous lion prides and
spotted hyena clans whose territories converge on the floodplains.
Katavi’s most singular wildlife spectacle is
provided by its hippos. Towards the end of the dry season, up to 200
individuals might flop together in any riverine pool of sufficient
depth. And as more hippos gather in one place, so does male rivalry
heat up – bloody territorial fights are an everyday occurrence, with
the vanquished male forced to lurk hapless on the open plains until
it gathers sufficient confidence to mount another challenge.
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