In the distance,
beneath a bulbous baobab tree, a few
representatives of Ruaha's 10,000
elephants - the largest population
of any East African national park,
form a protective huddle around their
young.
Ruaha protects a vast tract of the
rugged, semi-arid bush country that
characterizes central Tanzania. Its
lifeline is the Great Ruaha River,
which courses along the eastern boundary
in a flooded torrent during the height
of the rains, but dwindling thereafter
to a scattering of precious pools
surrounded by a blinding sweep of
sand and rock.
A fine network of game-viewing roads
follows the Great Ruaha and its seasonal
tributaries, where, during the dry
season, impala, waterbuck and other
antelopes risk their life for a sip
of life-sustaining water. And the
risk is considerable: not only from
the prides of lions that lord over
the savannah, but also from the cheetahs
that stalk the open grassland and
the leopards that lurk in tangled
riverine thickets. This impressive
array of large predators is boosted
by both striped and spotted hyena,
as well as several conspicuous packs
of the highly endangered African wild
dog.
Ruaha's unusually high diversity
of antelope is a function of its location,
which is transitional to the acacia
savannah of East Africa and the miombo
woodland belt of Southern Africa.
Grant's gazelle and lesser kudu occur
here at the very south of their range,
alongside the miombo-associated sable
and roan antelope, and one of East
Africa’s largest populations
of greater kudu, the park emblem,
distinguished by the male's magnificent
corkscrew horns.
A similar duality is noted in the
checklist of 450 birds: the likes
of crested barbet, an attractive yellow-and-black
bird whose persistent trilling is
a characteristic sound of the southern
bush, occur in Ruaha alongside central
Tanzanian endemics such as the yellow-collared
lovebird and ashy starling. |
