Monkey business: Baboons roam in large packs across the Lake Manyara reserve. This one has bitten more than it can chew. Photo: Talib Qizilbash

It is considered a good place to be introduced to the East African safari. Wildlife enthusiasts drive in and out again in just a couple of hours, following a circuit that hugs the water’s edge. With lush jungle and grassy plains teeming with life, the conservation area is said to provide a taste of what the region has to offer.

But in reality, the national park is more than an introduction, more than just a taste. Ernest Hemingway wrote about this northern Tanzanian ecosystem in the most favourable terms: “The loveliest I have seen in Africa,” quotes one source. The macho American author loved Africa and became enamoured with big-game hunting after a visit to the region in 1933, when Tanzania was called Tanganyika.

Today, big-game hunting is out and conservation is in across East Africa’s national parks. And while Lake Manyara National Park is overshadowed by the surreal Ngorongoro Crater, the romantic Serengeti and the famous Maasai Mara in south-western Kenya, the wildlife reserve has the potential to unveil nature that remains hidden, or even nonexistent, elsewhere.

Seeing a leopard in the wild in Tanzania is not easy. Big cats can be seen, for sure. Lions and cheetahs seem to be easier to find. But the leopard is a elusive, solitary creature. Well camouflaged in its preferred hiding spot, high up in shady trees, the leopard is most likely watching tourists from its perch unbeknownst to the binoculared visitors desperately looking to spot its spots. But on our first day of our African safari, our open-roofed jeep pulls up behind two other vehicles parked on the side of the dirt track. Cameras and binoculars have zoomed in on a leopard almost 100 metres away. It sits still on a thick branch of a twisting, ancient tree. Then it raises its head, and its thick tail, python-like in length, hangs and sways in the air. “It’s rare to see one here,” says our guide Stanley. “You are very lucky.” (See the sidebar below on Africa’s “Big Five.”).

Lake Manyara is known for its uncommon tree-climbing lions, its calm and regal tree-munching elephants, its over 400 species of birds, its huge hippos and its grey baboons that can be found moving around in large gypsy packs. Scores of baboons can be seen together at one time: large alpha males screech and chase rivals as groups of females surround younger members, both cute toddlers and sparsely haired infants who stay attached to their mothers’ sides. Stuffing their mouths with the rich grub on the jungle floor, baboons have no problem sharing their space with the black-faced vervet monkey, the antelope who search for sustenance in the same areas, as well as with the jeeps of people who stop beside them and watch intently, with the naked eye or through a lens.

Below are a few samples of what our lens captured at Lake Manyara.

The Big Five

When people talk about safaris in Africa, they inevitably talk about the “big five.” At Lake Manyara National Park, the big five animals are all there. It’s not easy to track each one of them down in the same afternoon, but if you have a bit of luck on your side, well, then never say never. Of course, there is much more than the big five. But what are the big five African animals? If you think the giraffe and hippo make the list, you would be wrong. Here’s the official big five list:

• Elephant
• Rhinoceros
• Lion
• Leopard
• Cape Buffalo