Ruaha

The park takes its name from the Great Ruaha River, which runs about 475 km from the Kipengere range in the south-west to the Rufiji, and forms the park's south-eastern edge. In the dry season, TANAPA notes, it is what draws the park's wildlife in: the river shrinks to channels and pools across a wide bed of sand and boulders, and the animals come down to it.

TANAPA lists sand rivers among the park's landscapes, and its map marks the Mwagusi, the Mdonya and the Jongomero running in towards the Great Ruaha.

The river now stops. It used to flow all year. Since the early 1990s its dry-season flow has fallen, sections of it dried out completely in 1993 and in dry years since, and by 2019 it carried no flowing water for several months a year. The cause lies upstream, in the Usangu plains, where large rice-irrigation schemes and heavy dry-season grazing take the water before it reaches the park. Downstream the same river feeds the Mtera and Kidatu hydropower dams and millions of people across its basin, so every user competes for the same flow.

In 2008 the Usangu wetlands, the river's upstream catchment, were brought inside the park. Whether that has been enough to restore the dry-season flow is not settled.

Ruaha sits where the wildlife of East Africa meets that of southern Africa, and its species list shows it. Greater and lesser kudu live here together, which few parks can say. So do sable and roan antelope, Lichtenstein's hartebeest, topi and bohor reedbuck, and TANAPA notes that the park is the most southerly point in the range of Grant's gazelle, an East African species.

It is above all a predator park. The wider Ruaha landscape supports close to 10% of the world's remaining lions, according to the UN Development Programme's Equator Initiative. Leopard, cheetah and African wild dog are all present, and TANAPA describes the wild dog population as healthy. Elephant, buffalo, giraffe and zebra make up the rest of the familiar list.

Birds. TANAPA's brochure counts 574 species. Two of them carry the park's name: the Ruaha red-billed hornbill and the Ruaha chat were first recorded here and named after it. Because of where it lies, the park is visited by both southern and northern migrants.

The protected area began in 1910 as the Saba Game Reserve, gazetted by the German colonial government. In 1946 the British enlarged it and renamed it the Rungwa Game Reserve. TANAPA's website spells it Rungwe, but its own brochure, its park map and the reserve that still exists to the north all use Rungwa.

In 1964, three years after independence, the southern part of that reserve became Ruaha National Park. A section of the Great Ruaha River was added in 1974, and in 2008 the park took in the Usangu Game Reserve and wetlands, reaching 20,226 km², the largest national park in Tanzania until Nyerere was created in 2019.

People were here long before any of it. TANAPA lists the burial site of Mapenza, a Gogo chief, inside the park, and rock-painting sites at Ganga la Mafunyo, Nyanywa, Chahe and Idinda. Outside the boundary, the Isimila pillars near Iringa are among the region's best-known archaeological sites; see the Iringa guide.

Elephants. The Ruaha–Rungwa ecosystem held about 34,000 elephants in 2009. By 2015 a census found about 15,800, give or take 4,800: a fall of some 60% in six years.

Lions. Ruaha's lions range well beyond the park and meet livestock, and the landscape has recorded the highest rate of lion killing in East Africa, by herders protecting their animals. In February 2018 the carcasses of six lions and 74 vultures were found, apparently poisoned. The Ruaha Carnivore Project, founded in 2009 and working with Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, employs men from pastoralist communities as "Lion Defenders" who track lions, warn villages and help find lost cattle instead of killing them.

The boundary. In June 2023 Parliament approved taking 478 km² out of the park and returning it to 29 neighbouring villages, to reduce conflict. TANAPA now gives the area as 19,822 km², a reduction of 404 km² from 20,226; we have not found the notice that reconciles the two figures. Then in October 2023 the government announced a plan to extend the park over other villages, and reporting by Mongabay put the number of people facing relocation at about 21,000.

That plan brought serious allegations. In June 2023 villagers, supported by the Oakland Institute, complained to the World Bank that park rangers had carried out killings, disappearances, sexual assaults and cattle seizures. The complaint concerned the Bank's REGROW programme, US$150 million since 2017 to develop tourism in southern Tanzania, and in April 2024 the Bank suspended its funding, saying it had information suggesting breaches of its policies. TANAPA and the ministry did not respond to Mongabay's questions. We have not verified the allegations or the government's position, and we do not know what has happened to the extension plan since.

By air, scheduled light aircraft fly from Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro and Arusha to the Msembe airstrip at park headquarters and to Jongomero. By road, TANAPA gives the distance as 108 km from Iringa, 480 km from Mbeya and 625 km from Dar es Salaam. The speed limit inside is 50 km/h and off-road driving is not allowed.

Fees. Ruaha is in TANAPA's lower band, with one rate all year: USD 30 per non-East African adult per day, USD 10 for children aged 5 to 15, and TZS 5,000 for East African citizens, all exclusive of 18 per cent VAT, so USD 35.40 in practice. That is less than half the Serengeti or Nyerere rate. Staying in a lodge or camp inside the park adds a concession fee of USD 30 per night.

Activities are charged on top: a walking safari is USD 20 for one to four hours or USD 25 for longer, a night game drive USD 50 (TANAPA says a ranger must be booked in advance from park headquarters), and a hot-air balloon flight carries a park fee of USD 30. A park guide is USD 20 per group per day.

Staying. Besides the private lodges and tented camps, TANAPA runs its own accommodation at Msembe: self-contained cottages on bed-and-breakfast from USD 50 a head, or USD 100 for a family of two adults and two children; a rest house at USD 30; and hostels for organised groups. Public campsites, with showers and toilets, are USD 30 per person per night and special campsites USD 50. TANAPA recommends booking ahead.

When to go. There is one rainy season, from about the end of November to May. June to October is dry and the game concentrates on the river. TANAPA gives average monthly temperatures of 23 °C in July to 29 °C in September, with days reaching 40 °C and nights falling to 8 °C.