Photosafari in the Lake Manyara Park. Lake Manyara, under the Rift Valley escarpment, is home to extremely varied environments, despite its small size (330 square kilometers, of which 200 are occupied by the lake). They range from the dense forests fed by the resurgences that emerge at the foot of the Rift Valley, to the savannahs, to the marshy areas on the lake. Numerous animal species, including large colonies of baboons, vervet monkeys and other species of monkeys, elephants, giraffes and as many as 380 species of birds. Here, during the period from December to March, large flocks of pink flamingos settle, which then migrate towards Lake Natron between June and October. Among the predators are numerous leopards and lions; the latter, bothered by the humidity of the soil and insects, have acquired the habit (quite rare among these big cats and found only in a few other areas) of climbing on the branches of trees.