The varied landscapes of Lake Manyara National Park
Bachelor herds of impala are typically found close to the breeding herds |
Although Lake Manyara NP is a mere 330 kmē wide (of which some 230 kmē is covered with the waters of Lake Manyara), it contains a wide variety of habitats: woodlands, forest, grasslands, swamps and of course the lake shores. The Park only has one access gate, in the north along the road from Arusha to Serengeti.
A young monkey is picking flees from its mother's coat |
The first habitat we traverse is the ground water forest. The water seeps underground from the slopes of the Ngorongoro volcano and eventually feeds the lake. Monkeys are abundant: baboons, vervet monkeys and blue monkeys, who never stray far from the woods. The air in the forest is cool and humid, and everywhere we hear the gurgle of small streams and rivulets.
A rare sibling of the much more common Helmeted Guinea Fowl |
As we follow the trail south, the landscape changes slowly. The tropical forest thins and gives way to grassy plains. A group of male impalas travels south parallel to the road. Yahaya dubs them the 'bachelor club'. Impalas live either in breeding herds of females with young and a single dominant male, or in groups like this one: all male. These are immature animals that have to gain their own territory yet. Male impalas have horns; the females don't.
Marabous are a subspecies of the stork family |
The impala never wander far from the cover of shrubs and brush and as we approach the shores of the lake, we leave the group behind. A wide plain of grass stretches out before us. On the horizon are the bare stalks of dead trees, a
The Ground Hornbill, a turkey lookalike, can grow up to over a meter in height |
long line of wood skeletons. Yahaya explains that after the El Niņo rains in 1998 the alkaline waters of the lake stretched as far as these trees and the vegetation died.
Yahaya points at the lake and asks if we can see the hippos. We have no idea what he is talking about and it takes several long minutes, and a hippo moving, before we realize that the cluster of rocks we see half-submerged in the water, are no rocks at all!
Warthogs are strictly diurnal animals, foraging only during the daytime |
Despite its long thorns, the acacia is popular with elephants and giraffes |
The Maasai giraffe, common to Manyara, has irregular starshaped markings on its entire body |
A yellow chameleon is busy changing its color to green before entering the undergrowth |
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