Selous Game Reserve

The Selous Game Reserve — recently renamed Nyerere National Park in its core area in honour of Tanzania's founding president Julius Nyerere — is Africa's single largest protected wildlife area. Spanning approximately 50,000 square kilometres, the Selous ecosystem is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the world's last truly great wilderness areas. The sheer scale of the place is difficult to comprehend: a landscape of miombo woodland, seasonal floodplains, lakes, and river systems so vast that it creates a world unto itself.

The Rufiji River is the Selous's lifeblood and its greatest attraction. Africa's largest river system south of the Zambezi, the Rufiji cuts through the heart of the reserve, creating a network of channels, lakes, and oxbow pools that support extraordinary concentrations of wildlife. The park's famous boat safaris drift silently along the Rufiji's banks, bringing visitors face-to-face with hippo families resting in the shallows, massive Nile crocodiles basking on sand bars, and herds of buffalo coming to drink. The experience of viewing wildlife from the water — at eye level with hippos and crocodiles — is profoundly different from any land-based safari.

The Selous supports Africa's largest population of hippopotamus — estimated at over 40,000 individuals — and one of the continent's largest crocodile populations. During the dry season from May to October, the Rufiji pools concentrate both species to dramatic densities.

Large elephant herds move through the reserve's vast miombo woodland, and conservation efforts have stabilised and begun to reverse historical poaching declines. African wild dogs — Africa's most endangered large carnivore — find their stronghold in the Selous. The reserve's vast, lightly populated miombo woodland is ideal territory for the dogs' large pack ranges, and the Selous population of several hundred individuals is one of the most important in Africa.

The Selous's bird list exceeds 440 species, with the riverine and lacustrine habitats attracting spectacular waterbirds including African skimmer, white-backed night heron, malachite kingfisher, and palm-nut vulture. Walking safaris through the miombo provide a ground-level safari experience in landscapes of great character. The Nyerere National Park sector is accessed by charter flight from Dar es Salaam in approximately one hour, and pairs naturally with Mikumi National Park and Zanzibar.