The geography of Udzungwa

far older than the volcanic mountains of the north

The Udzungwa Mountains are of particular ecological significance as they form a part of the East Arc Mountains, which stretch from the south of the country, up through the Usambara Mountains in the north-east and over to the Shimba Hills in south-east Kenya.

The mountains are ancient, substantially pre-dating all of the overlying volcanic mountains and Rift Valley scenery.

Over the millennia, Africa has gone through alternate cycles of desertification to reforestation, the continent has gone from yellow to green and back to yellow. But these forested mountains have remained green throughout, providing one of the most stable environments in the world.

Stable climates provide plenty of time for evolution to take place, so plants and animals have time to adapt and modify themselves to take advantage of every possible niche by developing ever increasing levels of specialisation.

The forests and high altitude grasslands of the Eastern Arc Mountains therefore harbour an incredible biodiversity. There are so many endemic species here that these mountain islands are sometimes referred to as ‘the Galapagos of Africa’.

Alongside more regular animals like elephants, leopards, civets, genets and a whole host of shy and elusive forest creatures, the area is able to claim three unique primates, a fabulous recently-discovered giant elephant shrew and at least 25 otherwise unknown bird species. That really is a lot of diversity in such a small area.

A small proportion of international visitors to Tanzania are naturalists who come here specifically to explore these East Arc Mountains, having developed a specific intellectual interest in the flora or fauna of the area, often inspired by Jonathon Kingdon’s excellent book Island Africa.