Tanzania October – November 2012 – Udzungwa Mountains National Park

The Udzungwa Mountains National Park betzeen Mikumi, Ifakara and Iringa offers a remarkable set of endemics. The most noteworthy is the Udzungwa Forest Partridge, which is more related to any Asian partridge than to any African species. The national park houses also several stunning mammals, including Leopards, Bush Pigs, Aardvarks and Elephants. It is also the only place in the world to see the rare Iringa Red Colobus and Sanje Mangabey.

We birded for two days in the East Udzungwa´s, which is unfortunately not the place to see any of the endemcs. For those you have to visit the West Udzungwa´s from the town of Udekwa, which is virtually impossible to visit using public transport and very costly to arrange at the national park office (we had to pay around 600 euros for everything if we wanted to arrange it at the office). Therefore we opted for two days hiking in the East Udzungwa´s, which proved to be enough for both endemic monkey species.

We camped at Mang´ula B, which was near the national park office, which is the starting point for most of the trails. The first hike was a bit strenuous as the terrain was rather steep and the temperatures rather high. We still noted some nice species like: Crowned Eagle (a sub-adult which gave brief, but absolutely stunning views), (Kenya) Crested Guineafowl, Trumpeter Hornbill, Red-capped Robin-chat, Yellow-breasted Apalis, Southern Black, Ashy and White-tailed Crested Flycatcher, Yellowbill and White-naped Raven. We also had fantastic views of a troop of Sanje Mangabeys foraging around us. An additional guide can be hired at the office to locate these special primates, but we didn´t and were apparently very lucky to find them by ourselves. Besides these primates, we also noted Iringa Red Colobus, Blue (or Sykes) Monkey, Angola Pied Colobus, Harvey´s Duiker, Tanganika Mountain Squirrel and Eastern Tree Hyrax.

Sanje Mangabey (Sercocebus sanjei) winking at the camera

Sanje Mangabey (Sercocebus sanjei) with an infant

Iringa Red Colobus (Procolobus gordonorum) looking away...

Sykes Monkey (Cercopithecus mitis)

Angola Pied Colobus (Colobus angolensis)

The next day we did a long day hike of 14 kilometer, which was very exhausting as the terrain was even steeper than yesterday and temperatures equally high. During this hike we managed to note African Goshawk, African Hawk-eagle, Crowned Eagle, African Hobby, Livingstone´s Turaco, Green Woodhoopoe, Green Barbet, Trumpeter Hornbill and Green-headed Oriole amongst other species. We also saw the Sanje Mangabey again. Apparently we were even more lucky than yesterday… We also noted Iringa Red Colobus, Blue (or Sykes) Monkey, Angola Pied Colobus and Yellow Baboon, resulting in five primate species seen during a single hike! We also heard a Buffalo moving through the forest, making our scout rather nervous. I also made a sound recording of a Galago, which might be a South-African Galago. Comments are most welcome. I will upload this sound recording here as soon as possible.

African Hawk Eagle (juvenile) (Aquila spilogaster)

Yellow Baboon (Papio cynocephalus)

Scout

I really recommend this site to anyone, birder and non-birder, as the scenery is breathtaking and the wildlife good, however challenging to find. For the birders I recommend visiting the West Udzungwa´s to try for the local endemics. However, I later heard that the highly elusive Dapple-throat and Swynnerton´s Robin should be possible in the East Udzungwa´s, so they might be worth exploring for these species.