Tanzania
Tanzania is 1.7 times the size of France. From this websites point of view it is a country well worth visiting. With some of the best known savannah ecosystems including the Serengeti and its incredible migration of 2 million wildebeest (along with many other species), it is on a lot of peoples bucket list.Â
Less well known reserves, but arguably with higher conservation value, include what was the Selous reserve (Nyerere national park) which contains 5000 of the continents remaining lions, as well as the Udzungwa national park, Gombe Stream, a small reserve with a group of Chimpanzees and Mahale, which still hosts about 1000 but is far more remote and harder to get to.
Supporting between 1/3 and 1/4 of the worlds remaining lions, as well a a vast array of wilderness, but also hosting some of the worst hit reserves in terms of poaching in recent years, Tanzania is essential to conservation. Thankfully, as tourism makes up a large part of their economy there is also a great need to be effective in conservation for the well-being of the people of the country.
We have both visited this country, but also have a range of links for your future travel.
HAPPY BROWSING
Tanzania reimposes a rule banning export of animals, one day after they rescinded the ban put in place 2016
- Tim
- June 9, 2022
The ban was to be lifted for traders to clear their stocks, and would have been lifted from the start of June to the start of December. Outrage forced the minister in charge to reverse the change within 24 hours. WWF the worldwide famous conservation organisation warned on Saturday that relaxing this ban would undermine …...
USA has given a hunter permission to bring back body parts of a lion from Tanzania
- Tim
- September 15, 2019
Up until 2010, hunters in the USA could bring back parts of the lions that they hunted to the USA. Under Obama the import of body parts from African hunts was banned because of their inability to get control of the poaching was going on. However from the second that Trump came to power, despite …...
Lion (Tanzania)
- Tim
- February 17, 2018
The majority of my safari experience has been had within the Kruger national park in South Africa. While wild, generally the facilities there are far greater than in Tanzania. As such the campsite in the Selous national park in Tanzania consisted of a flat piece of land with a sign saying ‘Lake Tagalala camp’ and …...
Review of Udzungwa National Park, Tanzania
- Tim
- January 12, 2018
Driving around Tanzania, you regularly come across tiny remnants of rainforest that still exist high up in hills and mountains. East Africa used to have more rainforest, but the area has dried out over the last few thousand years (East Africa has an extremely long cycle of drying out and the retreat of rainforest and …...
Review of Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania
- Tim
- January 9, 2018
The Selous nature reserve is the largest protected savannah reserve in Africa. It covers roughly 50,000 square km (19,000 square miles). However this reserve is named Selous after Fredrick Selous, a successful hunter. 95% of the park is set aside for hunting. However, partly because of this and also because of an insect that inhabits …...
African forest elephants are now considered critically endangered, and African savannah elephants endangered, are the Asiatic elephants safe? And are we killing one of the few hopes humanity has? A guide to what remains
- Tim
- May 29, 2023
The African savannah elephant has declined by 60% over the last 50 years, and the African forest elephant has declined by 86% over the last 31 years. So how close are these species to disappearing? There are currently 415,000african elephants in the wild, spread across 23 countries. Unfortunately, their situation is highly different on different …...
Chevron has created a large set of carbon offsets and they appear worthless, says research
- Tim
- May 27, 2023
Chevron has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2030 through a carbon offset scheme. It is notable, that Chevron sells a product which is totally incompatible with carbon zero emissions. This new research suggests that their carbon offsets are worthless, and therefore the emissions of Chevron will not change at all. Corporate Accountability, a non-profit …...
Might a raise in the minimum age for lion trophy hunting help?
- Tim
- March 11, 2023
At the moment, in most areas, male lions can be hunted from the age of 6. Unfortunately as the age of the lion is regularly over-estimated, this means that lions as young as 4 are often shot. A recent proposal is to increase the age to 8. This would mean that young lions are not …...
News in brief – roundup of politics in the way of action, fossil fuel problems and positive moves
- Tim
- November 24, 2022
Huge extra emissions because of “cutting the green crap” The level of gas imports in the UK are around 13% higher than they would have been, had the Conservative government not “cut the green crap” one decade ago. It is estimated that this would account for 65 terawatt hours of gas that we will have …...
Guard dogs to save Namibian Cheetah?
- Tim
- September 29, 2022
While the Cheetah has suffered a horrific fall in range and numbers in the world over the last century, there are some hopes for the species. Cheetah are not big cats- this means that they often struggle to thrive in small reserves alongside other big cats. What this has meant is that in many countries …...
African wild dogs live at low densities naturally, what happens if climate change makes survival harder?
- Tim
- July 13, 2022
African wild dog, fill a similar niche in Africa that the wolf does in much of the northern hemisphere. Hunting as a pack, and running greater prey down until exhaustion means either collapse or a greatly weakened animal allowing the kill to take place. Because they live at low densities, it is only the largest …...
I am disgusted to be British after the latest move in parliament – hunting trophy import ban to be axed, but if we are ending the ban the British government must take responsibility
- Tim
- March 15, 2022
The British government promised to ban the imports of trophies in to the UK, yet they have given up after “wealthy peers” lobbied against the move and so it was dropped. I have written on this issue many times over the last few years, as it was raised as an issue over and over again. …...
Lockdown has shown the perils of overreliance on tourism: what to do
- Tim
- January 12, 2022
Uganda has suffered during lockdown. As much as 7% of the countries population works in tourism, a sector which has been either totally shut down, or greatly reduced over the last few years. Several other countries like Tanzania have suffered in a similar way. How can we expect countries to protect huge ecosystems if the …...
It would seem that human mothers are not the only ones to take a keen interest in their offspring’s partners
- Tim
- January 10, 2022
From arranged marriages to informal dates, for millennia parents have often been involved in arranging their offsprings spouses. It would appear that in the Bonobo world, things work in a similar way. Bonobos are a female dominated world. In Chimpanzees and Gorillas, generally it is the male who decides to mate, and forces himself on …...
The website was hacked! nothing lost, and wildlife tourism to Africa can return
- Tim
- October 7, 2021
Hello everyone! We survive So, the website was hacked. Nothing was stolen, from what I was told they were just able to delete the website. Thankfully we back up, so we have survived. We have added a significant extra layer of protection which should make it impossible for the same problem to arise (it had …...
Did I miss the start of the end of the canned lion hunt?
- Tim
- September 14, 2021
South Africa has rather a problem. They have given over a large amount of their country to wildlife conservation, and many of the tourists who visit, come to see the wildlife. However, South Africa also has an important hunting history. Now, if you go back 50 years the number of buffalo and similar was so …...
A reduction of African great apes of 80% by 2050?
- Tim
- June 25, 2021
Rooting out corruption is necessary to halt the illegal wildlife trade
- Tim
- April 7, 2021
From the top to the bottom, there are members of the force that are fighting to stop the wildlife trade, which are perpetuating it and indeed financially growing rich on the back of it. Police, prosecutors, airlines and even diplomats are involved in the smuggling of rhino horn in south east asia. The sanctity of …...
Lion population expected to half in the wild during the next 15-20 years
- Tim
- March 20, 2021
While increasing amounts of land is given to wildlife in southern Africa and the lion population grows, unfortunately in east and central Africa the opposite is happening. Unfortunately in west and central Africa, the lions (many of these lions are orphaned relict populations of the Asiatic lion, and therefore highly important) tend to live in …...
It seems that the mara river is threatened as well as the ecosystem
- Tim
- March 19, 2021
There are many threats to the Serengeti mara ecosystem, from roads crossing to global warming and more. Unfortunately fish in the river are now being driven to extinction as well – putting the livelihoods of millions of people in jeopardy. From farming deforestation mining illegal fishing and invasive species, there are many different factors damaging …...