The biodiversity of this park is by far one of Tanzania’s most special features. Habitats include mountain forests, tropical rain-forests, Miombo woodlands, grasslands, and steppe. The Udzungwa Mountains are part of the Eastern Arc Mountains which are found in Kenya and Tanzania and were formed some 200 million years ago. Today they hold a unique collection of flora and fauna and cover only 2% of Tanzania’s area but hold between 30-40% of the countries plant and mammal species.
The vertical height of the Udzungwa forests ranges from 250 m to 2,576 m and with numerous forest trails, offering different kinds of activities, the park is a true hikers paradise. A half day tour to Sanje waterfall at a towering 170 m is worth doing.
The park is home of six primates, two of which are Iringa red colobus and the sanje crested Mangabey which occur nowhere else in the world. Other wildlife found in the parks includes elephants, leopard, bush bucks, duikers, palm civets, miombo genets, and hyenas.
Bird watchers
are also in for a treat as the park boasts with over 400 species of birds. Some
of them are endemic to the Eastern Arc Mountains and four of them are found
only in Udzungwa. Other common birds include ruppells vultures, marabous,
crowned eagles, malachite kingfishers, woodland, kingfishers, silvery cheeked
hornbills, and trumpeter hornbills. Over 2500 species of plant have been
identified in this park of which 25% are endemic to area.
