Visiting The Ugalla River National Park

Best of western Tanzania Attractions

The ugalla river in west-central Tanzania is a broad, slow-moving river of sandbanks, shallow pools, oxbow lakes, and swamps that winds it away in meandering loops westwards through a remote and almost forgotten world of extraordinary wildlife richness. it became a national park in 2019. It is just under 5000sqkm in the area.

WILDLIFE

The river drains a vast landscape of shallow hills and valleys dominated by miombo woodlands and tall grass savannas that are home to elephant, buffalo, lions, leopards, zebras, etc., and also the largest herds of sable and roan antelope to be found in Tanzania. In the swampy stretches to the west are found the swamp-dwelling sitatunga antelope, cape clawless otters, and a host of exciting water birds such as shoebill stocks wattled cranes, pygmy geese etc.

In the dry season lasting from July to October, these animals concentrate more and more on the ugalla river and it becomes a place where exciting wildlife lies around almost every corner.

Hippo and crocodile abound in the river, and indeed the ugalla river is reputed to have some of the largest crocodiles ever recorded in Africa. During the wet season they are feeding on catfish and other fish but as the dry season progresses they supplement their diet with animals coming down to drink may grow to over 21 feet in length.

Game viewing will focus mostly on the river itself following its endless twist and loops and beautiful overlooks. Groves of huge trees and scattered along the banks offering wonderful places to camp or perhaps just relax for a mid-day picnic or a coffee break as you watch wildlife all around you.

The ugalla river flows slowly westwards beyond the boundaries of the national park into the complex waterways and west lands of the Moyowosi swamps, which will eventually drain into Lake Tanganyika. This vast and remote domain must surely be one of the greatest unexplored wildlife treasures of all of Africa.

SAFARI IDEAS

Ugalla national park is centrally located between the national park Kigosi, Mahale, Katavi, and Ruaha. it is wild and remote and makes a great complement to itineraries that feature national parks within the southern circuit.

Ugalla Chimpanzee project

Calabash Adventures ltd support the project by bringing awareness to people and make sure some of the tourists will visit the area of Issa Valley

The Project Manager: Mr. Alex

"We examined sleeping site selection by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in the Ugalla savanna woodland area, western Tanzania, from 1994 to 2012. We established 488 km of line transects and recorded 379 chimpanzee beds within 30 m perpendicular to the transects. Comparisons between 60 × 60 m2 quadrats containing new and recent beds and the remaining quadrats without beds along the transects indicated that evergreen forests accounted for disproportionately more area in quadrats with beds than in those without beds during both the dry and rainy seasons. In Ugalla, chimpanzees coexist with lions (Panthera leo) and leopards (Panthera pardus). They may sleep in forests to reduce predation risk by these carnivores, as trees are dense and the canopy is high and closed. The angle of the slope was steeper in quadrats containing beds than in those without beds during the dry season, whereas the angle was less steep in quadrats with beds than in those without beds during the rainy season. Additionally, fewer beds were found further from forests. The distance between beds and forests during the dry season was shorter than that during the rainy season. Chimpanzees may sleep in or near forests and on slopes because of water pools in the valley forests along the slopes during the dry season. Quadrats with beds were at a slightly higher altitude than those without beds during the rainy season; however, the difference was not significant during the dry season. The number of beds found in or close to feeding trees was not related to the fruiting period. Sleeping site selection by chimpanzees may be affected by predation pressure and water availability in the savanna woodland area".