National Parks Africa » Mkomazi Umba Game Reserve

Along the northern border of Tanzania to the east of Kilimanjaro, cover 2,500 square kilometres (1,000 square miles) of varied habitats, including dry plains with many valleys, part of the Pare Mountains, and steppe stretching eastward towards the Indian Ocean. This stretch of land is an important buffer zone for animals in the vast Tsavo National Park across the invisible border between Tanzania and Kenya.

There is encroachment on all sides of the reserves by pastoralists and cultivators; sometimes livestock seems more common than wildlife. Increased use of the reserves by non-hunting visitors will lead to improvements in facilities and protection but meanwhile, the landscape remains incredibly beautiful. There is a fascinating variety of semiarid plants, including many euphorbia with their poisonous latex and the knobbly-spined Erythrina burtii with striking red flowers. Numerous birds including thousands of migrating European swallows (Hirundo rustica) and golden-breasted starlings (Cosmopsarus regius) live or visit this area.