The former Selous Game Reserve is a paradise for animal life
What was known as the Selous Game Reserve became Nyerere National Park in 2019 when it officially gained national park status. With an area of 30,893 km², the largest protected wildlife area in Africa. Only the northern section is open to tourism and safaris, because the rest is a hunting reserve and doesn’t allow human settlements.
The vastness of the territory means it contains very different landscapes and ecosystems: from miombo forests to grasslands dotted with baobabs, acacias and ebony trees, from swampy areas to rocky hills. As a result, Nyerere Park hosts an incredible variety and quantity of animals: it’s estimated that about 2/3 of Africa’s elephants live inside it, plus the largest concentration of hippos and crocodiles. But also lions, giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, eland, kudu, Liechtenstein’s hartebeest, rare predators like African wild dogs, and more than 450 bird species.