African Safari – Lake Manyara National Park
One of the highlights of the Lake Manyara visit was the Blue Monkeys or Diademed Monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis) which greeted us along the nature trail and at other locations along the roads.
There were also Vervet Monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) in the park. Their common name is “Blue-Balled Monkeys” for obvious reasons. The monkeys that chased Graeme in his Lake Nakuru National Park video were also Vervet monkeys so he seemed a bit nervous when we passed beneath the tree limbs sporting a family of Vervet monkeys.
In addition to the monkeys, the Lake Manyara National Park is also home to some very large Baobab trees (Adansonia digitata). Their trunk structures are huge and they survive droughts by storing water in their giant trunks. During dry periods, they shed their leaves to conserve moisture and were just beginning to re-leaf during the period of time when we were visiting Tanzania.
