The Selous Game Reserve

The Selous is the largest game reserve in Africa, it covers an area about 50,000sq km, it is three times larger than Serengeti, more than twice the size of South Africa's Kruger National park, and roughly 50 percent bigger than either Belgium or Swaziland. It was founded to protect the Elephant and wildlife habitats such as Miombo woodland. You can find: lion, hippo, buffalo, African hunting dog , crocodiles and many other species of animal in Selous. There are over 400 species of birds that have been recoded, including: herons, eagles king-fishers, other different waterfowl. and numerous birds of the prey. In 1859 Burton and Speke went to the part of Tanzania that is now known as the Selous. They noted that the area lacked human settlement; this is explained mostly because of local abundance of Tsetse flies (which carry livestock diseases, especially sleepingsickness – Trypanosomiasis) and the limited permanent water in Rufiji River.

Under the German colonial government in 1905, the area is gazetted and it was divided into four reserves, but in 1922 the British colonial government fused the four area into single reserve and named it after Frederick Selous. There was different human displacement which occurred through events such as Maji maji resistance in 1905 caused people to leave the area of the reserve. After independence of Tanganyika in1961 and the formation of united the Republic of Tanzania in1964 the government gave a high precedence to the improvement and enlargement of the area and its security. The headquarters of the reserve are at Matambwe.

In 1962 the area was opened for hunting, and it was divided into 47 hunting blocks but nowadays 43 blocks are taken by hunting companies and the remaining four are used for photographic tourism. Therefore much of Reserve's income is received from hunting while the remainder comes from photographic visitors. In 1973 safari hunting was restricted in Tanzania but this restriction was lifted in 1982 with hunting number of animals based on ecological monitoring. Due to derivation of high annual income from the reserve the infrastructure and vehicle support were developed.

In the reserve the most attractions are water flowing and wilderness; there is a hot spring in the reserve which known as ''Maji moto'' this located on eastern slopes of Kipala hill and it flows in Tagalala lake this water emits a strong smell of sulphur. In 1974 Rufiji River began in the Selous Game Reserve. This river has unbelievable numbers of crocodile and large pods of hippopotamus. The Rufiji River together with Ruaha river divides the reserve into two parts. The major part of the Rufiji runs through the reserve from west to east. Another significant benefit for tourism of the Rufiji river in the reserve is to provide alternative means of transport by using boats apart from the planes and the vehicles.

In the reserve the soils around Nzerakela and Siwandu lakes are very fragile and off-road driving. (theoretically restricted) can leave scars. The drivers follow these marks and in no time make they make permanent new tracks. These tracks follow the falling water level and are made at the peak of the game viewing (which occurs during July to October )which coincides with the dry season when the grass has been burned. Roads in the Selous become impassable after heavy rain hence during the big rains the camps are closed. This situation occurs normally during the start of wet season in April, re-opening in July.

In the reserve there is a programme which started for development of the reserve. This programme is called the Selous Conservation Programme, and is a combined activity between the Tanzanian and German governments. This programme is aimed at bordering communities and focuses on conservation activities and fund raising. The villages that border the reserve benefit with tourist income and designate some of their land for wildlife management, they hunt some of animals and employ village game scouts. As Tanzania and Zambia Railways opened this helped the access of the reserve. Normally the best day to travel is Monday because there is possibilities of viewing the wildlife and it travel during the day. Sable Mountain lodge this is the lodge located at the Matambwe in the headquarters of the reserve. This lodge can collect the visitor at Kisaki station near to the reserve.

As I have said Selous Game Reserve was started essentially to protect the elephants; In 1976 there was 81000 Elephants in the Selous ecosystem, but at the end of the poaching scourge the Elephant numbered less than 30000. But Elephants are widespread and they have great powers of population recovery, up to now there is over 60000 Elephants in Selous game reserve and surrounding areas.

Over 50pecent of Elephants in Tanzania are in Selous . Selous is the one of few places in the world where Elephants may be found in abundance. Also in the 1980s Selous estimated about 3000 Rhinos which was largest to be confined within any one East African conservation area, but this is quite different to the current population which is fewer than 150 rhinos . Based in Dar es Salaam especially Wild Things Safaris offer the varieties of safaris to the Selous Game Reserve.

For more information contact Wild Things

Frederick Mlaponi is a Tanzanian Student researcher on work experience with Wild Things Safaris in Tanzania http://www.wildthingsafaris.com.