possesses all the attributes that make Tanzania’s tropical coastline and islands so popular with European sun-worshippers.
Yet it is also the one place where those idle hours of sunbathing might be interrupted by an elephant strolling past, or a lion coming to drink at the nearby waterhole! Game numbers and visibility do not at present match the more popular parks in the north and south but, especially with the upgrade to National Park status, there is improvement in both aspects.
The diversity of animals is comparable to many parks but numbers. Large game currently seen include giraffe, buffalo, elephant, lion, leopard, sable antelope, eland, hartebeest, wildebeest, zebra, waterbuck, reedbuck, greater kudu, Oryx, warthog, mongoose, civet, serval, baboon, black and white Colobus, crocodile, hippo, three species of duiker as well as a great variety of birdlife. Saadani is dominated by acacia woodland, coastal thickets and miombo woodland.
It also protects a large area of mangrove swamps around the mouth of the Wami river on the south boundary, and includes several species of palm including the mysterious looking ‘walking palm’, not actually a palm at all! Dolphins are sometimes seen offshore and whales pass through the Zanzibar channel on their migration. Of particular interest is the green turtle project at Madete, this endangered species is under particular threat from fishing practices offshore from Saadani and a conservation project has been established to help protect both turtles and their eggs.
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