Thank you for an amazing safari. Our guide Patrick was the best. His extensive knowledge of flora and fauna was amazing. He has a great sense of humor; he is warm, patient and professional. Patrick not ...
Constantine and Luis Regalado Physician Wellington, FL
Selous Game Reserve, encompassing more than 54,000 square kilometers (21,000 sq mi), is the largest protected area in Africa. It is among Africa's oldest, too. Four pieces of it were set aside by German colonial administrators in 1896. These bits were combined in 1922 by British colonial administrators, who named the resulting reserve after Frederick Selous, the renowned British explorer, hunter, naturalist and soldier. Like other game reserves in Tanzania, controlled big game hunting is permitted in Selous, but not in regions of the park set aside for safari travel. The Rufiji River, East Africa's largest, drains the region, and most travelers visit the northeast corner of the park, on the river's northern bank. The rules that permit game hunting in Selous also allow for a wider range of non-hunting activities than are available in Tanzania's national parks. These include boating on Selous' rivers and estuaries, day and night game walks and hikes and fly camping.
The area north of the Rufiji (and its tributary, the Great Ruaha) consists of wooded grasslands and swamps and marshes near the rivers. Narrow-trunked Terminalia spinosa trees, with flat canopies that suggest they might be stunted acacias, predominate away from the rivers while doum palms dot the landscape closer to water. Most of the rest the park south of the confluence of the Rufiji and Ruaha rivers falls into the Eastern Miombo woodland ecoregion, which stretches south across Tanzania and into Mozambique. The soil is poor throughout the park and across the region. Rain, when it falls, falls between November and May. The rest of the year drought prevails, and animals congregate near the park's rivers, making for great game viewing opportunities. The poor soil and lack of reliable rainfall makes the region unsuitable for intensive agriculture, too, which has helped protect the reserve from encroachment by people.
Frederick Selous was killed here, by the way, in a skirmish with German forces near Beho Beho mountain during World War I. He was buried here, too, not far from where he fell, his grave marked with a brass and stone marker.
Wildlife
Plains herbivores such as wildebeest, zebra and giraffe are found north of the Rufiji, despite the poor soil and sparse rainfall. Hartebeest, eland, buffalo, impala, waterbuck are common, too. Plenty of lions and the occasional cheetah make appearances. Hyenas are also common, and elsewhere, especially in the miombo woodlands, African wild dogs, servals, jackals and leopards hunt. Hippos wade in the rivers, while crocodiles lurk. Tens of thousands of elephants are protected from poachers within the reserve (as are several thousand black rhinos), most of them found south of the river in the miombo woodlands. Other large miombo woodland mammals include kudu, duiker and sable antelope. Baboons and monkeys – including black and white colobus monkeys – live in the trees. Further up in the branches some 450 bird species have been recorded, including a couple of threatened species (such as the wattled crane and the lesser kestrel) and a few endemics (the Udzungwa forest partridge and the rufous-winged sunbird).
