Lake Manyara National Park

A superlative destination for birdwatchers

Lake Manyara National Park is in the Great Rift Valley. The lake is shallow and alkaline and it takes up about two thirds of the area of the park. Although small, the park has a great diversity of habitats supporting an interesting range of game. There are open grasslands, rocky outcrops, thick acacia woodland, lush forest and swamps.

Regularly sighted animals include elephant, buffalo, wildebeest, giraffe and lion but it is the birdlife that is truly superlative here. Even a casual birdwatcher is likely to see 100 species here in a single day. The park has 51 recorded species of diurnal raptor with 28 of them being residents or regular visitors. There are also beautiful, colourful bee-eaters, giant kingfishers, painted snipes, barbets, rollers, enormous ground hornbills and white-backed pelicans.

Tree-climbing lions

One of the park’s more famous residents is the tree-climbing lion. Unlike conventional lions, these predators choose to spend most of the day up in the branches of the trees. The reason for this is not fully understood although there have been many explanations put forward – it might be that it makes a better look-out, perhaps they want to be up high where they can feel the wind coming off the lake or maybe it is a fly-avoiding tactic. Yet none of these potential causes are exclusive to Manyara so why is it only here that the lions ‘roost’? There is no conclusive evidence and more research is needed to try and understand their unusual behaviour.