Manyara Ranch is a wildlife sanctuary in the Rift Valley of Tanzania. It consists of 43,000 acres of wilderness in the migratory passage for many species.
The cache is a pint jar large enough for a travel bug. Be aware of muggles across the street. You can park off the road near the entrance to the ranch. Entrance to the ranch is restricted. From the geochache you get a view to the growth point of Makuyuni, which is the intersection of roads from Arusha to Ngorongoro and Tarangire. Do not attempt this geocache in the dark as there is a open pit adjacent to it.
Manyara Ranch is a 43,000 acre property in the Tarangire-Manyara ecosystem of northern Tanzania—one of the richest areas in the world for large mammal diversity and abundance. Manyara Ranch is of critical conservation importance as it supports abundant resident wildlife and facilitates movement and migration of wildlife populations from Tarangire National Park to Lake Manyara to the west and to Lake Natron to the north. Manyara Ranch is essential to the survival of migratory wildlife populations in northern Tanzania and supports the ecological viability of Tarangire National Park, one of the most important Parks in Tanzania. The Tarangire–Manyara ecosystem supports an increasing population of over 3,000 elephant, which move between Tarangire, Manyara and Lake Natron depending on season, water and food availability. Without Manyara Ranch this wildlife movement would be blocked and elephant and other species would become increasingly restricted and the population’s resilience significantly reduced. The Tarangire wildebeest migration is the third largest wildebeest migration in Africa, and they are isolated from, and genetically distinct from, the Serengeti-Ngorongoro wildebeest population. Manyara Ranch’s savannah grasslands and acacia woodlands supports a remarkable diversity of wildlife with over 50 species of mammal recorded, over 450 species of bird and numerous species of reptile and amphibian. Important wildlife species found on the Ranch include lion, elephant, giraffe, leopard, cheetah, wild dog, spotted and striped hyena, bat eared fox, serval, honey badger, genet, aardvark, and eland. Previously a commercial cattle ranch under the Government of Tanzania’s National Ranching Company and at risk of being fenced, Africa Wildlife Foundation (AWF) facilitated the transfer of Manyara Ranch to the Tanzania Land Conservation Trust (TLCT) in 2001. In August 2013, AWF entered into a Management Agreement with TLCT to take over the full management of the Ranch. Over the past few years, AWF has succeeded in creating an effective anti-poaching program making Manyara relatively safe from poaching. In 2012, prior to AWF’s management, over 20 elephant were poached on the ranch. This was reduced to two in 2015 under AWF management. Manyara Ranch is surrounded by seven village communities. All are Maasai with strong cultural roots in pastoralism. Key livelihood activities include livestock production and subsistence cultivation. The large and increasing numbers of livestock due to population increase have resulted in significant rangeland degradation and erosion within the villages. The ranch works with villages to improve grass quality and quantity. Human wildlife-conflict (HWC) is a problem around the Ranch as lions, hyenas and other predators prey on livestock, and the Maasai kill the predators in retaliation. AWF is working to reduce HWC through the introduction of predator proof bomas and the adoption of better herding practices. Manyara Ranch maintains a herd of high quality Boran cattle as part of the agreed livestock-wildlife mixed land use program. The ranch sells bulls to the beneficiary communities annually at a reduced rate to help improve their livestock. AWF also runs a cattle improvement scheme whereby cows from the community are put with ranch bulls for a period of 2–3 months for breeding with the aim to produce improved cattle for the community.