Young elephant bulls in Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania.

© Attila JANDI/Shutterstock

Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor

Southern Highlands


The Selous-Niassa Wildlife Corridor ('Ushoroba' in Swahili) joins the Selous Game Reserve with Mozambique’s Niassa Reserve, forming a vast conservation area of about 120,000 sq km, and ensuring protection of one of the world’s largest elephant ranges. In addition to the elephants, estimated to number about 85,000, the area is home to one of the continent’s largest buffalo herds, more than half of its remaining wild dog population, a substantial number of lions, and resting and nesting migratory birds.

The area also encompasses large areas of both the Rufiji and Ruvuma river basins, with the watershed running roughly parallel to the Songea–Tunduru road. Local communities in the area are the Undendeule, the Ngoni and the Yao, who have formed various village-based wildlife management areas to support the corridor. Several of these communities have started small ecotourism ventures, including Marumba, southwest of Tunduru. At the Chingoli Society office in the village centre, guides can be arranged for village tours and to visit Jiwe La Bwana (with views across the border into Mozambique) and Chingoli Table Mountain and caves, used by locals as a hiding place during the Maji Maji rebellion. Tourist infrastructure ranges from basic to non-existent, with a basic campsite just outside the village.