SOUTHERN CIRCUIT

MIKUMI NATINOAL PARK
Mikumi National Park covers 5,209 kilometers square miles and lies within the Mkata River plain bordered by the Uluguru Mountain range to the east and the Rubeho Mountains on the west, an area of lush vegetation which particularly attracts elephant and buffalo. Open grasslands dominate in the flood plain, eventually merging with the miombo woodland covering the lower hills. Wildlife is abundant with giraffe, zebra, buffalo, hartebeest, wildebeest, elephant, wild dog, and smaller mammals and reptiles. Mikumi’s vegetation includes woodland, swamp and grassland with two water holes, Mkata and Chamgore. Apart from the saddle-bill stork, hammerkop and malachite kingfisher, there is also monitor lizard and a deadly python inhabiting the pools.

RUAHA NATIONAL PARK
The Ruaha National Park is Tanzania’s second largest park and the world’s largest elephant sanctuary. Although set in spectacular scenery with an abundance of wildlife, the park is one of the lesser visited in the country, keeping it an isolated and peaceful wilderness. Amongst the game found at the park are elephant, buffalo, giraffe, cheetah, lion, leopard, a wide variety of antelope, and over 465 recorded species of birdlife.

SELOUS GAME RESERVE
Selous is one of the most remote and least visited game parks in Africa, but at 24,120 square kilometers, it is the world’s largest game reserve. The name derives from hunter-explorer Frederick Courtenay Selous, a keen naturalist and conservationist as well as a hunter. He was killed in the First World War in the Beho Beho region of the reserve. The defining feature of the Selous is the great Rufiji River, which naturally splits the ecosystem into two distinct parts. The area can be explored by boat, sailing through swamps and lagoons where elephant often come to bathe, or even by foot, as the Selous is one of few Tanzanian reserves to allow walking tours. It has the world’s largest number of big game, more than 120,000 elephants, 160,000 buffaloes and about 2,000 rhinoceros. In addition, the Selous contains Africa’s greatest concentration of hippopotamus, crocodile and wild dog.

UDZUNGWA MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
The park features scenic mountains and forests that are home to animals found nowhere else on earth, and lies in an area that is one of the few places in Africa to be covered by continuous rainforest. Six species of primates, including the rare Iringa red colobus and the Sanje crested mangabey monkey can be found here.