Southern Circuit Tanzania Safaris and Destinations
The Southern Circuit of Tanzania stretches in the south of the country. The safari circuit is one of the famous safari circuits in Tanzania and the world at large. Southern Circuit consists of top National Parks, top physical features, and Game Reserves in Tanzania such as the Selous Game Reserve, the Udzungwa Mountains, Mikumi, and Ruaha National Parks, Saadani National Park, Mnazi Bay-Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park, and Kitulo National Park.
Tanzania Safari: Ruaha & Nyerere National Parks
Southern Circuit Tanzania
Southern Circuit Tanzania is absolutely wonderful!! Your safari to the southern part of Tanzania will be filled with wildlife sightings in the premiere reserves and National Park. The great combination of National parks with lots of wildlife such as Mikumi National Park, Ruaha National Park, Kitulo, and Udzungwa National Parks with the Premiere Selous Game Reserve will leave you in a dilemma of explaining the perfect sightings here.
Selous Game Reserve
The Selous Game Reserve is a protected area in southern Tanzania, stretching on vast expanses of land cover a total land area of about 50,000 square kilometers with the park having an additional buffer zone. Selous Game Reserve is the largest Game Reserve in Africa and one of the largest in the world.
The Selous Game Reserve
Selous Game Reserve is renowned for being larger than Switzerland and remarkably four times bigger than the Serengeti National Park. Selous Game Reserve was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982 because of its diversity of wildlife and undisturbed nature.
Selous Game Reserve has a high exceptional variety of vegetation that is varied within the Reserve including the open grasslands, riverine forests and swamps, and the Miombo woodland that are the great habitat of wildlife in the Reserve.
The Reserve has the highest densities and diversity of wildlife species than any other Miombo woodland area with more than 2,100 known plant species existing in the Reserve though many more other undescribed still exist in the remote forests in the south.
Selous Game Reserve is home to the protected large mammal fauna with the reserve habituating a significant population of African elephants with more than 106,300 elephants recorded in the reserve, and also includes one of the world’s largest known populations of the hippopotamus of about 18,200.
Selous Game Reserve is home to black rhinos and wild hunting dogs. The wildlife in the Reserve is further spiced by the ungulates which include the sable antelopes, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest, greater kudu, and the Nyassa wildebeest, with large numbers of crocodiles, lions, zebra, impala, leopards, hippos, buffalo, and large herds of giraffe that often drink from the lakes during the heart of the afternoon.
Selous Game Reserve is further spiced with a variety of birdlife and the Reserve habituates over 400 different bird species including the rare Pel’s fishing owl and these can be seen at the shores of The Great River Rufiji and the lake shores. Large numbers of birdlife tend to flock the Reserve between the month of December and April and thus recommended as the best time for birding activities in Selous Game Reserve
Mikumi National Park
Wildlife in Mikumi National Park
Mostly compared with the Serengeti National Park that acquires 3,230 km² is the 4th largest national park in Tanzania. Mikumi National Park is bordered by Selous Game Reserve on the south with two areas forming a unique ecosystem.
The Park is also bordered by the Udzungwa Mountains and the Uluguru Mountains. The Malundwe Mountains are found within the Park and the highest of the belt of hills that run east and west through the park and connect the Uluguru in the northeast with the Udzungwa Mountains in the west. Mikumi National Park an ideal safari destination guarantees a year-round wildlife sighting.
Ruaha National Park
Wildlife in Ruaha National Park
Ruaha National Park is a National Park in the middle of Tanzania and the most well-known on a southern circuit safari. Ruaha National Park spans more than 7,800 square miles making it the largest protected wildlife area in Tanzania and East Africa at large.
Ruaha National Park is part of the large 45,000 square kilometers that cover the Rungwa_Kizigo and Muhesi ecosystem which includes the Rungwa Game Reserve, the Kizigo, and the Muhesi Game Reserves, and the Mbomipia Wildlife Management Area. The National Park is home to 10% of the African lion population. Wildlife sighting here is guaranteed year-round.
Kitulo and Udzungwa National Parks
Kitulo National Park the national park is famously known as the “Garden of God”. the national park hosts great flora and fauna with absolutely pleasant scenic beauty with the alluring beauty of the Momella Lake absolutely perfect destination.
Udzungwa National Park has great biodiversity which makes it unique from other national parks of Tanzania. Udzungwa National Park holds a unique collection of flora and fauna which is the country’s 30-40% of the countries plant and mammal species.
