Selous Game Reserve, Tanzania
The Selous is Tanzania's largest game reserve; in fact it is the largest in Africa and holds UNESCO World Heritage Site status. The Selous is a usually the major feature of a southern circuit safari.
The Selous Game Reserve is a massive wilderness area four times the size of the Serengeti. It supports some of the biggest herds left in Africa, with an estimated 30,000 elephants and 200,000 buffalo as well as large herds of all the other game. There are plenty of hippo and crocodiles, wildebeest, hartebeest, kudu, sable antelope, eland, reedbuck, bushbuck, zebras and giraffe. It is also a very good place to see African wild dogs (also called hunting dogs). Around 450 species of birds have recorded in this game reserve.
The Rufiji River runs through the park, pretty much bisecting it into a northern and southern section, and most people tend to visit the area to the north of the river. Having said that there are nothing like the numbers of visitors here that there are to the northern parks and that is partly its attraction, especially to people returning to Tanzania for a second visit.
You can do walking safaris here as well seeing game from a boat and the more conventional land rover safaris. There are several very good camps and exclusive lodges here to choose from. Selous is best between June and October and in January and early February, but is also good in the green season, being March and mid-November to mid-December.