Lake Manyara National Park is excellent for birdwatching and a good area to find elephant, as well as the potential excitement of spotting a legendary Lake Manyara tree-climbing lion.

Manyara is often visited for an afternoon at the start of a safari and/or a morning at the end, as it lies on route to and from Ngorongoro and the Serengeti.

The park is famous for the birdlife almost 400 different species. It is also famous for the elephant population and the tree-climbing lions. There is a large variety of tree species within the park.

Lake Manyara Wildlife

Elephant, giraffe, buffalo and wildebeest can be found grazing in unexpected clearings or heading towards the water to drink or wash, and the rivers and riverbeds provide scenic vistas for possible animal spottings. Warthog seem to thrive here, growing notably fat and tuskered, and it is a natural playground for baboons and monkeys.

The legendary tree-climbing lion of Lake Manyara inspire extensive theorising as to the wonders of evolution, and are also notoriously rarely seen.