Wildlife of Tanzania

Serengeti, Tanzania por Sara&Joachim.

Photo from the Serengeti by Sara&Joachim

Tanzania - Wildlife Conservation Society

Tanzania is probably the most biodiverse nation on mainland Africa. With spectacular landscapes, Tanzania encompasses the continent’s highest point—Mt. Kilimanjaro—and its deepest lake, Lake Tanganyika. Tanzania provides habitat for concentrations of large herbivores, various carnivores, rare birds and amphibians, and unique wild orchids. The country is also home to Africa’s most newly discovered monkey, the kipunji.

Conserving wildlife in Tanzania, Africa’s most biodiverse country Interesting interview with Tim Davenport

With ecosystems ranging from Lake Tanganyika to Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania is the most biodiverse country in Africa. Though Tanzania is world famous for its safari animals, the country is also home to two major biodiversity hotspots: the Eastern Arc Mountains and the Albertine Rift surrounding Lake Tanganyika. Tanzania has set aside nearly a quarter of its land mass in a network of protected areas and more than one-sixth of the country’s income is derived from tourism, much of which comes from nature-oriented travel.

Tanzania: Environmental Profile

Tanzania still has extensive forest cover, most of which is savanna woodland and montane forest, though there are scattered patches of lowland forest. Much of this forest has high biodiversity and endemism—especially in the southern highlands region. However, these forests are increasingly threatened by fuelwood collection by the rapidly expanding population, as well as by commercial felling of timber and expanding agriculture

Geography of Tanzania

Judy’s Photos :: Wildlife of Tanzania, E. Africa – 2003 & 200

Sightings in Tanzania Wildlife

Tanzania’s national parks and game reserves cover one seventh of the country and include the Serengeti National Park, which is famous for its vast migratory herds of plains animals, particularly wildebeest, zebra, eland and kudu. There are small bands of chimpanzees that can be found in the Gombe National Park along Lake Tanganyika. The steep mountain walls of the Ngorongoro Crater provide protection and a natural enclosure for animals in an environment of great natural beauty. The crater forms a part of the Ngorongoro Park. Rhino and elephant numbers are still low due to poaching in the past, despite the government’s protective measures.

Tanzania: Conserving Wildlife, Forests With People’s Support (2010)

FEW villagers today conduct indiscriminate hunting of wildlife in national parks in their neighbourhood after the government started rigorous programmes to involve them in wildlife conservation exercise. The exercise may have begum decades ago, but the last five years have seen more efforts by the government to reap the wealth potential that has been in the wild from time immemorial.

Tourism as one of the sources of revenues from the wildlife and other natural resources has as a result attracted much attention of the state to give the people education about the potential wealth buried in their surrounding area. Awareness of how to exploit their environment with only some care and a little love, has drawn much effort and enthusiasm from them, resulting in big rewards.

Among the chief beneficiaries are women who, as a means of emancipation, have taken to beekeeping mostly in the districts of Kibondo, Rufiji, Uyui, Manyoni, Kondo and Handeni. The total number of beekeepers in all these districts has increased from 1,791 in 2005 to 2,500 in 2008. “Among them are 762 women,” says a government’s report on implementation of 2005 manifesto of Chama Cha Mapinduzi

Villages Protect Migratory Paths in Tanzania

To accommodate the needs of wildlife, ecosystems, and people, WCS is working with the Tanzanian government, tour operators, and communities around Tarangire National Park to preserve wildlife and livestock migrations.

New Monkey Faces Old Threats 2008

Poaching and illegal logging have driven Tanzania’s kipunji monkey, discovered just three years ago, to the brink of extinction in its tiny forest home.