The fierce sun
sucks the moisture from the landscape,
baking the earth a dusty red, the
withered grass as brittle as straw.
The Tarangire River has shriveled
to a shadow of its wet season self,
but it is choked with wildlife. Thirsty
nomads have wandered hundreds of parched
kilometers knowing that here, always,
there is water.
Herds of up to 300 elephants scratch
the dry river bed for underground
streams, while migratory wildebeest,
zebra, buffalo, impala, gazelle, hartebeest
and eland crowd the shrinking lagoons.
It's the greatest concentration of
wildlife outside the Serengeti ecosystem
– and the one place in Tanzania
where dry-country antelope such as
the stately fringe-eared Oryx and
peculiar long-necked gerenuk are regularly
observed.
During the rainy season, the seasonal
visitors scatter over a 20,000 sq
km range until they exhaust the green
plains and the river calls once more.
But Tarangire's mobs of elephant are
easily encountered, wet or dry.
The swamps, tinged green year round,
are the focus for 550 bird varieties,
the most breeding species in one habitat
anywhere in the world.
On drier ground you find the Kori
bustard, the heaviest flying bird;
the stocking-thighed ostrich, the
world's largest bird; and small parties
of ground hornbills blustering like
turkeys.
More ardent bird-lovers might keep
an eye open for screeching flocks
of the dazzlingly colourful yellow-collared
lovebird, and the somewhat drabber
rufous-tailed weaver and ashy starling
– all endemic to the dry savannah
of north-central Tanzania.
Tarangire's pythons climb trees,
as do its lions and leopards, lounging
in the branches where the fruit of
the sausage tree disguises the twitch
of a tail. |
