19/11/2020
Katavi National Park is Tanzania's third largest national park, located in the Rukwa region in the west of the country.
The name Katavi comes from the legend of the Bend tribe. According to legend, not far from Lake Katavi, the spirit of Katavi, or Katabi, lives in the twin trees of the Indian date and the false white acacia.
Most of the park is located in the Rukwa Rift Valley, which is part of the East African Rift System and runs parallel to the Tanganyika Rift Valley. Lake Rukwa in the southeast is the lowest point in the valley. The main landscapes of the park are the bottom of the rift valley and the mountain plateaus on both sides of it: in the west is the Llamba La Mfipa escarpment, and in the east is the Mlele escarpment.
The valley floor is a terrace with flooded meadows, seasonal lakes and rivers. The height above sea level ranges from 820 to 960 meters. The rocky and steep escarpment in the east is covered with many seasonal and year-round falls such as Chorangwa, Lukima and Ndido. The western escarpment includes a large number of mountains and steep slopes. The height of the mountains here reaches 1560 meters.
Almost all of the park's rivers flow into Lake Rukwa, which has no flowing rivers, only in the northwest of the park, the seasonal river Nkamba flows west into Lake Tanganyika. The main artery of the park is the Katuma River, which feeds Lake Katavi in the north, Lake Chada in the center of the park, and the 425 km² Katisunga flooded meadows. In recent years, due to illegally built dams in the upper reaches, the Kapapa and Ngolima rivers that feed Lake Chad have dried up earlier than usual, causing great damage to the ecosystem.
To the west of the park is Lake Tanganyika and the Mahale Mountains and Gombe Stream National Parks. To the south and east of the park are Lake Nyasa (Malawi) and the Kitulo and Ruaha National Parks.
The park is home to 50 species of large and medium-sized mammals. Population of zebras, swamps, buffaloes, impalas. The park is home to elephants, hippos, warthogs, giraffes. Some hard-to-reach areas of the park still remain untreated. So de lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, cheetahs, wild dogs, croco
