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Tarangire National Park
Day after day of cloudless skies.
The fierce sun sucks the moisture from the
landscape, baking the earth a dusty red, the withered grass as
brittle as straw. The Tarangire River has shrivelled to a shadow of
its wet season self. But it is choked with wildlife. Thirsty nomads
have wandered hundreds of parched kilometres knowing that here,
always, there is water.
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.
More ardent bird-lovers might keep an eye open
for screeching flocks of the dazzlingly colourful yellow-collared
lovebird, and the somewhat drabber rufous-tailed weaver and ashy
starling – all endemic to the dry savannah of north-central
Tanzania.
Disused termite mounds are often frequented by
colonies of the endearing dwarf mongoose, and pairs of
red-and-yellow barbet, which draw attention to themselves by their
loud, clockwork-like duetting.
Tarangire's pythons climb trees, as do its lions
and leopards, lounging in the branches where the fruit of the
sausage tree disguises the twitch of a tail.
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