Saadani National Park

Saadani National Park is the only Tanzanian Park with a coastal boundary, offering a radically different African safari experience by reason of the variety of habitats to be found in this 1100 square kilometres (425 square miles) of unspoiled wilderness situated on the East Coast of Tanzania. The climate is humid and hot. The terrain ranges from tropical forest to swamp, lake, river, long and short grassland, black cotton soil, salt flats, mangrove forest, shallow lagoons, sandbanks and coral reefs. Zaraninge Forest is listed under the Coastal Forest Biodiversity Hotspot of Tanzania, with a vast range of flora and a population of small and mid-size mammals including elephant shrews, dormice, mongooses, bush squirrels, primates, wildebeests, zebras and wide-ranging antelopes which eat the grass, plants, worms and insects which form the base of a food chain supplying snakes, birds of prey such as kites and eagles, and carnivores, particularly lion and leopard.Hundreds of water-birds, including goliath herons and pink lesser flamingos, present a treasure trove for birders together with scarlet-beaked mangrove kingfisher, Pel’s fishing owl and the raucous, omnipresent African fish eagle. In brackish water, where rivers meet the Indian Ocean, forests of mangroves, with air roots to enable them to survive in salt water, retain rich river-borne soil. They provide nurseries for succulent giant prawns and other shellfish as well as shelter for birds, bats and reptiles.

• There are small herds of elephant here, and also lion although both can be skittish.
• Leopard, spotted hyena and black-backed jackal also occur.
• Hippo and crocodile are found in the river, and green turtles breed on the beaches.
• Short grasslands, studded with spiny acacia trees and baobabs support ostriches, buffalos and the gawky giraffes, emblem of Tanzania.
• Tall grass and tropical forest shelter huge elands and the extraordinary white bearded wildebeests.
• The Wami River is home to hippopotamus and to crocodiles up to five meters long, attended by fearless, tooth-picking egrets.