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The Udzungwa Mountains National Park
The Udzungwa Mountains National Park, is the youngest park in Tanzania, opened only in 1992. It was founded to
protect the mountain forests in this area from loggers. The highest peak in the mountains is the Luhombero Peak with 2579m.
The area of the park is 1900km2 or 199,000 hectares. Udzungwa is Tanzania's twelfth national park and the sixth largest.
The greatest altitudinal range of forests in East Africa: The eastern escarpment is the only place in East Africa
with unbroken forest cover from lowland forest communities at below 250m above sea level, through intermediate types, to montane communities at over 2,000m.
Exceptionally species-rich forest: The Udzungwa contain plant species found nowhere else in the world, ranging from a tiny new African violet to 30m high trees.
In the Udzungwa Mountains there are no roads, and all safaris done here are on foot. The main routes however only cover the eastern slopes of the Mwanihana Peak 2111m.
Rich primate fauna: The park hosts six species of primate, two of them endemic forms - the Iringa (Uhehe) red
colobus monkey and the Sanje Crested Mangabey. The latter was only discovered in 1979.
Diverse large mammal community: The plateau contains resident populations of elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard,
wild dog, sable antelope, eland and water buck. there is also a rich small bovid community, with good numbers of red, blue and abbots duikers and bushbuck.
Richest forest bird habitat in Tanzania with several endemics. Recent studies have added several new species the park's bird list (including a new species of francolin.)
This gives the Udzungwa forests a ranking in the top three areas important for bird conservation in mainland Africa.,
Spectacular mountain scenery with rainforest, wooded
grasslands, rock faces, rivers and waterfalls: The falls on the Sanje River drop some 170m through the forest to the valley below. The mountain plateau allows views of over
100km, much of it across a mosaic of mountain forest and grassland.
Together with the Uluguru and Usambaras ranges, the Udzungwa constitute the so-called "eastern arc" mountains of Africa.
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