• Facebook
  • Instagram
  • english
  • deutsch
info@paradiessafaris.com | +255 (0) 784 999510
Paradies Safaris
  • Safariin Tanzania
    • The 3 Safari Circuits
    • 3 Days Safari Start
    • 7 Days Safari Classic
    • 10 Days Northern Circuit Safari
    • 12 Days Southern Circuit Safari
    • 14 Days Safari and Zanzibar
    • Day Trips in Tanzania
      • Arusha Waterfalls Day Trip
      • Kilimanjaro National Park Hike
      • Marangu Village Kilimanjaro Cultural Tour
      • Maji Moto Chemka Hot Springs
      • Jozani Forest Day Trip
      • Zanzibar Stone Town Tour
      • Zanzibar Spice Tour
  • BeachZanzibar Holiday
    • Zanzibar Archipelago
    • Mafia Island
    • Tanzania Mainland Coast
  • MountainKilimanjaro & Meru
    • Kilimanjaro Routes
    • Kilimanjaro Travel Guide
    • 6 Days Kilimanjaro Machame
    • 5 Days Kilimanjaro Marangu
    • 6 Days Kilimanjaro Lemosho
    • 6 Days Kilimanjaro Rongai
    • 6 Days Kilimanjaro Shira
    • 5 Days Kilimanjaro Umbwe
    • 4 Days Mount Meru
  • TravelInformation
    • National Parks and Conservation Areas
      • Arusha National Park
      • Kilimanjaro National Park
      • Lake Eyasi
      • Lake Manyara National Park
      • Lake Natron
      • Mikumi National Park
      • Ngorongoro Conservation Area
      • Ruaha National Park
      • Selous Game Reserve
      • Serengeti National Park
      • Tarangire National Park
      • Udzungwa Mountains National Park
    • Hotels and Lodges
      • Accommodations Arusha
      • Bagamoyo
      • Dar es Salaam
      • Lake Eyasi
      • Lake Manyara
      • Lake Natron
      • Mafia Island
      • Ngorongoro
      • Pangani
      • Pemba Island
      • Zanzibar North
      • Zanzibar North-East
      • Zanzibar South-East
      • Zanzibar West
      • Serengeti
      • Tarangire
    • Country Information Tanzania
    • The Great Migration in Tanzania
    • The Big Five in Tanzania
    • Travel Preparation Tanzania
  • FAQfrequently asked
  • AboutParadies Safaris
    • Why travel with us?
    • Paradies Safaris Blog
    • Our Team
    • Reviews on Tripadvisor
    • Reviews on Holidaycheck
    • Terms and Conditions
  • enquire
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
You are here: Home1 / Tanzania National Parks and Conservation Areas2 / Ruaha National Park
  • Elephants Family Tanzania
Antilopes in Tanzania
Antilopes in Tanzania Giraffes National Park Tanzania Bird Tanzania Hippopotamus Lake Tanzania

Ruaha National Park

brief overview

Ruaha National Park is named after the Great Ruaha River, which meanders along its entire eastern flank between colossal boulders and sandbanks, and offers spectacular scenery with gorges of shining orange sandstone. The river attracts many animals in search of water, making this national park a great choice for game viewing. The largest national park in Africa is situated on a high plateau, with individual smaller mountains of almost 2000 metres in height.

Ruaha Park is still little visited but is one of the largest elephant sanctuaries in Tanzania. The Ruaha River is the character river of Ruaha National Park, similar to the Selous of the Rufiji River. During the dry months the wildlife is concentrated along the river, so there is plenty to see and do near the river. Large parts of the park are unexplored and for much of the year you will not see many other visitors. Bird species in Ruaha National Park include hornbills, kingfishers, sunbirds and the occasional white stork.

enquire for free now

Facts and Figures

Area: 20.300 km²

Travel: 600 km from Arusha

Established: 1964

Visitors: 21.260 / year

Known for: Antelopes, Elephants, Sand-rivers

Activities: Gamedrives

Details
Ruaha National Park

The history of Ruaha Park dates back to 1910, when it was declared a Saba Game Reserve during the time of German East Africa. In 1946 the British changed the name to Rungwa Game Reserve. In 1964 the southern part of the area was declared Ruaha National Park and ten years later the south-eastern part of the Great Ruaha River was included.

The name “Ruaha” comes from the Hehe word “Ruvaha” which means “river”. The Ruaha National Park is part of the Rungwa Kizigo Muhesi Ecosystem with an area of more than 45,000 km². In 2008, the Usangu Game Reserve and other important wetlands in the Usangu Basin were incorporated into the park. This makes it the largest park in Tanzania and East Africa.

Often the Ruaha and its tributaries dry up completely and you can drive through some dried up riverbeds during game drives. On these so called sand rivers there is usually still a lot going on in terms of animal density, as under the sand surface of the river there is often a water impermeable rock layer. The animals can therefore easily get their hands on the vital water. Accordingly, elephants can be seen in the area of the Mwangusi and Mdonyo Sandriver, digging water holes with their trunks and even with their clumsy feet to get to the cool water. During the rainy season (from March to May), however, in both Ruaha National Park and Selous Game Reserve, the tributaries of the Ruaha and Rufiji Rivers, respectively, will swell into huge streams, flooding the roads.

One feels like an adventurer when one does not meet any other people in such a big park in wide areas. The Ruaha has an extension of more than 20.000 km² square kilometres. You will hardly encounters other vehicles, really no comparison with the North Parks, which can be highly frequented at certain times. Wherever you look, bushes and again bushes, bushes with their yellowish barks extending up to the mountains of the Southern Highlands, which are blue-grey in the haze. Occasionally there are also smaller groups of trees and hundreds of baobab trees with their bloated bellies, their smooth, shiny bark and the crooked branches. The quite hilly and stony landscape has a very special flair.

The park is also very interesting because there are animals from East Africa as well as from Southern Africa. So it functions as an overlapping zone – with a bit of luck horse antelopes (Roan Antelope), sable antelopes, small and large kudus, maybe impala antelopes and grant gazelle can be found in this area. The diversity of antelope and gazelle species here in Ruaha is unique. The Ruaha is the southernmost area in Tanzania, where Grant Gazelles and Lesser Kudus can be found. In the plains giraffes romp around, in the bush the calls of hornbills, francolins and kingfishers can be heard. The grasses scatter their seeds to provide food for numerous birds: Cardinal weavers in mass (the most common weaver bird in Ruaha Park), fireweavers, barbecue cuckoo, bronze-winged racing bird and the Pallid Rail. The park is teeming with harlequin quails, and wherever you look they fly out of the grass.

For example, the afternoon is a good time to see the wildlife along the Ruaha River. It is the time when the game comes to water. Hippos lie lazily in the water in groups of 10 to 20 females with their young. The hippopotamus bull chases all other males out of the herd, even pubescent young bulls (7-8 years old). These then join bachelor herds or live alone. Elephants trot along the river banks, herds of buffalo have settled there; antelopes, zebras and giraffes – a constant coming and going.

But there are also many Nile crocodiles and you can watch them at the riverbanks, where they sunbathe in peace and quiet. During the game drive you get to know different habitats, which are very different: Miombo forest land and acacia groves, uneven hilly terrain, grass plains, breathtakingly beautiful granite rock formations and repeatedly dried up river beds. During the dry season the buffalo come twice a day to the remaining water holes in the riverbed. Of course lions have hidden in the bush and wait for the thirsty ones. At such a waterhole, there is a good chance to observe the natural interaction between predator and prey with your own eyes. Ruaha Park boasts the largest population of lions in East Africa. It is not uncommon to see three or four different packs in a single day.

Map


© Noah Makula Pauline, University of Dar es Salaam

This might also be of interest to you:
Lake Eyasi View

Lake Eyasi

Indian Ocean Zanzibar Beach Holiday

Zanzibar Archipelago

Ol Doinyo Lengai holy Maasai mountain near Lake Natron

Lake Natron

Pages

  • About Paradies Safaris
  • Country Information Tanzania
  • Day Trips in Tanzania
  • Enquire and Contact
  • FAQ Tanzania
  • Hotels and Lodges in Tanzania
  • Kilimanjaro Routes
  • Kilimanjaro Travel Guide
  • Our Team
  • Paradies Safaris Blog
  • Safari Tanzania
  • Search Paradies Safaris Website
  • Tanzania National Parks and Conservation Areas
  • Tanzania Safari
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Thank you
  • The Big Five in Tanzania
  • The Great Migration in Tanzania
  • Travel Preparation Tanzania

Categories

  • Paradies Safaris Blog

Archive

  • November 2020
  • July 2020
  • January 2020
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • May 2019
  • November 2018

TZ +255 (0) 784 999510

TZ +255 (0) 767 510334

GER +49 (0) 421 39048937

info@paradiessafaris.com

Useful Links

Travel Advisory U.S. Department of State

E-Visa Service Tansania

List of diplomatic missions of Tanzania

Tanzania Tourist Board

Association of Tour Operators

Killimanjaro International Airport

AMREF Flying Doctors

Air Tanzania

Your Paradies Advantage

Excellent Safari and Mountain Guides

30+ years experience with Safari operations in Tanzania

Family business with headquarters in Arusha

Specially converted 4×4 Safari vehicles with raising roof

Private and shared Safaris with great value for money

Expert safari advice directly from Arusha

Detailed Safari programs with extensive description

Secure payment to a German bank account possible

©2004 - 2020 Paradies Safaris Ltd. | All Rights Reserved | Designed by Safari_Moe
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Imprint
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Blog
  • Search
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OK


How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Other cookies

The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.

Accept settingsHide notification only