The baobab is more water tank than tree. Its swollen trunk can store tens of thousands of litres of water, its hollow interior shelters everything from bats to bushbabies, and its fruit and bark feed hundreds of species across the savanna. Known across Africa by more than a hundred local names and nicknamed the “Tree of Life,” nowhere is it more spectacular than Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park. Explore our Tanzania safaris to see Tarangire’s baobab giants.
Key Highlights
- Can store tens of thousands of litres of water in its soft, spongy trunk
- The largest known baobabs are well over a thousand years old
- Elephants bore into the trunk with their tusks to access stored water in the dry season
- Hundreds of animal species rely on baobabs for food, shelter, or minerals
- Tarangire National Park has the highest baobab density on the safari circuit
- Fruit bats are the tree’s primary pollinator, visiting flowers that open only at night
Africa’s Tree of Life
The baobab (Adansonia digitata) is unmistakable — a massive, swollen trunk topped with branches that, for much of the year, look more like roots reaching into the sky. It’s known by more than a hundred different names across African languages, and its nickname, the “Tree of Life,” reflects just how much a single tree can do for the ecosystem around it: storing water, feeding wildlife, and sheltering a remarkable range of species.
Baobabs are found across semi-arid savanna and dry woodland below about 1,500 metres altitude, absent from wetter montane forest and the very driest desert fringes. Within the Tanzania and Kenya safari circuit, Tarangire National Park has by far the highest baobab density anywhere, with thousands of individuals scattered across the park, particularly around the Silale basin. Tsavo West in Kenya, especially around the Chyulu Hills and the Galana floodplain, offers the country’s best concentration.
A Living Water Tank
What makes the baobab so distinctive is its trunk. Rather than dense wood, most of it is made up of soft, water-storing tissue that can hold an enormous volume of water — the largest individual trees are estimated to store tens of thousands of litres at the peak of the wet season. You can actually see this seasonal cycle at work: a baobab’s trunk visibly swells slightly in the wet season as it fills with water, and shrinks a little through the dry months as that reserve is drawn down.
Elephants have learned to take advantage of this. Where the trunk is at its softest, elephants will bore into a baobab with their tusks to reach the water-saturated tissue inside, and older trees across Tarangire often carry deep tusk scars from repeated visits over many dry seasons — one of the more striking examples of an animal directly tapping a tree for water.
Baobabs are also remarkably long-lived. Carbon dating of the largest specimens has confirmed ages well over a thousand years, and one famous individual in South Africa — the so-called “Sunland Baobab” — grew to a trunk circumference of around 47 metres, large enough that a pub was once built inside its hollow trunk.
A Tree That Feeds Hundreds of Species
Very few plants support as much wildlife directly as the baobab. Its large white flowers open only at night, and fruit bats are the primary pollinators, drawn in by the fragrant, nectar-rich blooms — trees that lose access to bats produce noticeably less fruit as a result. The fruit itself, a large fibrous pod, contains a tart, vitamin C-rich pulp that’s far more concentrated in vitamin C than an orange, and it’s eaten by everything from elephants and baboons to warthogs, civets, and squirrels. Elephants are the most important seed disperser, carrying baobab seeds many kilometres away in their gut before depositing them elsewhere on the landscape.
Older baobabs often become hollow inside as their soft heartwood decays, and that hollow becomes real estate for a surprising range of animals — bat colonies, bushbabies, dormice, and nesting hornbills have all been found sheltering inside a single large tree, sometimes simultaneously. Even the bark serves a purpose: it’s unusually rich in calcium and sodium, and elephants and giraffes regularly strip and chew it during the dry season when green vegetation alone doesn’t meet their mineral needs.
Best Places and Times to Photograph Baobabs
Tarangire’s Silale Swamp area is the classic baobab photography location, especially at first light, when the tree canopies silhouette dramatically against the rising sun — often with elephant herds crossing in the foreground. Late afternoon along the Tarangire River offers a similar payoff in reverse, with baobab silhouettes set against the warm light of sunset as elephant families come down to drink.
Many camps can also arrange a guided visit to one of the accessible hollow baobabs in the area, where guides often point out old markings on the interior walls left by generations of local herders and hunters who once used these trees as shelter. For a different kind of baobab landscape, Tsavo West’s Shetani lava flow area pairs baobab silhouettes with dramatic black volcanic rock, and on clear days offers a distant view of snow-capped Kilimanjaro to the north.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much water can a baobab tree store?
The largest baobabs can store tens of thousands of litres of water in their soft, spongy trunk tissue, which they draw on during the dry season.
Why do elephants dig into baobab trees?
Elephants bore into the soft trunk with their tusks to access water stored in the tree’s tissue, especially during the dry season when other water sources are scarce.
Where is the best place to see baobab trees on safari?
Tarangire National Park in Tanzania has the highest baobab density of anywhere on the safari circuit, while Tsavo West in Kenya offers striking baobab landscapes near the Chyulu Hills and Shetani lava flow.
How old can baobab trees get?
Carbon dating of the largest specimens has confirmed ages well over a thousand years, making baobabs among the longest-lived trees in Africa.
Plan Your Safari
Our safari specialists can build a Tarangire itinerary timed for the best baobab photography, combined with the Ngorongoro-Serengeti circuit.
Contact us today for a free, no-obligation quote on your safari.
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