Tarangire National Park Safaris

The main activity inside the park has always been standard game drives, but over the last few years TANAPA (the National Park Authority) has introduced several activities that are the envy of other national parks. Tarangire is the only national park in Tanzania where it is possible to do night safaris, as well as walking safaris and fly camping. This makes it the northern park with the greatest diversity of safari activities – a real gem of the Northern Circuit!

You can head out into the bush with your guide and enjoy learning more about the wildlife, flora, insects, and dung. Or stay out beyond sundown and see what nocturnal creatures you can spot in the dark. Most big cats do their hunting at night, so sometimes you can come across a predator with its prey.

This is a camping event beneath the stars, so you can get even closer to what it feels like to be in the African bush! Each lodge will have its own slightly different arrangement, but what remains the same is that you have a night away from the main camp, dine privately beneath the stars in a glorious location, then sleep in a more simple accommodation (sometimes a treehouse). It’s the sounds of the bush at night and the feeling of being truly in the wild that is the draw here. Of course, your guides are always close at hand and you always have contact with the main camp.

Tarangire’s most impressive feature is the park’s elephant migration (July–Oct), when huge herds push through to Tarangire’s river system and swamps during the dry season. At this time, Tarangire contains the greatest number of elephant in northern Tanzania. There are plenty of lion and leopard present throughout the year. While cheetah are relatively rare, hyena, jackal, and wild dog are often found in Tarangire.

It is the herbivores that contribute most to the overall wildlife count in Tarangire. In addition to the enormous numbers of elephant, you’ll find wildebeest, zebra, eland, impala, greater and lesser kudus, dik-dik, Coke’s hartebeest, Thomson’s gazelle, giraffe, buffalo, reedbuck, waterbuck, warthog, hippopotamus, mongoose, rock hyrax, and even the fringe-eared oryx and the gerenuk!

Birds frequent Tarangire in breathtakingly large numbers. Over 500 species have been recorded to date, making it truly a birdwatcher’s paradise! As the topography of Tarangire is so vast and varied, there is an outstanding range of feathery friends to encounter – ostriches, eagles, lovebirds, weavers, barbets, parrots, pelicans, nightjars, starlings, babblers, and the intriguingly named ‘bare-faced go-away bird’! Be sure to pack your binoculars if birding is your thing