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Wildlife · 7 min read

The tree-climbing lions of Lake Manyara: why they climb, and your real chances

Why they do it, and why you may still not see one.

Active Kili Top · Arusha · Updated 3 October 2026
Lions resting in a tree in Lake Manyara National Park
Lions in a tree in Lake Manyara National Park.

The tree-climbing lions of Lake Manyara are on almost every itinerary that includes the park, and they are the reason many people ask for it. The reputation is real. It rests on a study from the 1960s that found Manyara’s lions up in the branches more often than on the ground. What the brochures leave out is how long ago that was, and how seldom a day visitor now sees it.

This article sets out what researchers have actually recorded about lions in trees, why they are thought to do it, how to judge your chances at Manyara, and where else in East Africa the same behaviour is seen. Our advice has not changed: visit Lake Manyara National Park for its forest, elephants and birds, and count a lion on a branch as a bonus.

The short answer

Lake Manyara’s lions do rest in trees, but sightings are not reliable. Researchers link the habit to wet-season afternoons and suggest heat, biting flies and avoiding buffalo and elephant as reasons; none is proven. Lions also climb in the Serengeti, Tarangire and Uganda’s Ishasha, so treat a sighting at Manyara as luck.

At a glance: the tree-climbing lions of Lake Manyara, and where else they are seen

Across four northern Tanzanian areas, about 8 per cent of lion sightings in the 2013 to 2020 study were in trees.
PlaceWhat is recordedHow to treat it
Lake Manyara, TanzaniaIn trees on two-thirds of encounters in a 1960s study; acacia woodlandPossible, never promised; a small park with few lions
Central Serengeti, TanzaniaLions rest in acacias and sausage trees, and on kopjesMore lions and more days, so more chances
Tarangire, TanzaniaIncluded in a 2013 to 2020 study of lions in treesOccasional; come for the elephants
Ishasha, UgandaLions rest in large fig trees; promoted by the wildlife authorityThe other well-known place; a different trip
Next: Why lions climb ↓Contents ↑

Why do lions climb trees? What researchers have found

Lions are not built for trees. An adult lioness weighs well over a hundred kilograms, and a lion comes down a trunk awkwardly, backwards or in a scramble. Leopards climb as a matter of course, to keep a kill away from hyenas and lions. For lions it is an occasional habit, and the scientific literature offers several explanations for it without settling on one.

The oldest is biting flies. In 1962, after exceptionally heavy rain, the Ngorongoro Crater suffered a plague of the stable fly Stomoxys, and the conservator Henry Fosbrooke recorded lions climbing trees and hiding in burrows to escape them. George Schaller, who studied lions in the Serengeti soon afterwards, made the same connection. The second explanation is safety: getting out of the way of buffalo and elephant. The third is comfort, since a branch a few metres up catches more breeze than the ground.

The most recent evidence fits more than one of these. A study by Christian Kiffner in the African Journal of Ecology in 2026 analysed 570 lion sightings in Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti between 2013 and 2020. Lions were in trees in about 8 per cent of them, more often in the wet season and in the afternoon, and adult males climbed less than females and young lions. The study did not measure flies or heat directly, so the cause remains open.

Next: The reputation ↓Contents ↑

How Lake Manyara's lions got their reputation

Manyara’s name for this comes from one short paper. Stephen Makacha and George Schaller watched the park’s lions for a year and a quarter and published their observations in 1969. They found lions in trees on two-thirds of the occasions they met them. The park also had an unusually high density of lions, about 0.4 to the square kilometre, which they noted was nearly double that of the Ngorongoro Crater.

The same paper gives a clue to why. Buffalo made up 62 per cent of the kills they recorded, and they saw buffalo kill a lion cub on three occasions and elephant once. In a narrow park where lions lived among large buffalo herds and elephants, a branch was a safe place to spend the day. That is an inference, and the authors offered it as a possibility, not a finding.

The habit is often described as something cubs learn from their mothers, which would explain why some prides do it and others rarely do. It is a reasonable idea and it has not been tested. What can be said is that the 1960s figures describe the lions of that time. No published study we could find repeats the count for Manyara alone today, so nobody can honestly quote you a percentage.

Next: Your chances ↓Contents ↑

How likely you are to see tree-climbing lions in Lake Manyara

Treat it as unlikely on any single visit. Our own plan notes say the lions are there some days and not others, and that we never plan the day around them. The park is small, a strip of land between the Rift Valley escarpment and the lake, and much of it is thick groundwater forest and bush where a lion twenty metres from the track is invisible. It is quite possible to spend a day at Manyara and see no lion at all.

Time counts against the day visitor too. A half-day game drive covers the northern end of the park. Lions in the 2026 study were more often in trees in the afternoon, when a morning visitor has already left for Karatu. If you want to give yourself a fair chance, stay for the afternoon, as our Lake Manyara day trip from Arusha does, leaving the park at about five o’clock.

The official park page calls Manyara the only place in Tanzania where lions rest in the branches. That is not what the research shows, and it sets visitors up for disappointment. Any operator who lists the tree-climbing lions as something you will see is selling a hope. Elephants in the forest, large baboon troops, hippos and several hundred bird species are what Manyara delivers day after day.

Next: Where else ↓Contents ↑

Where else to see tree-climbing lions: Serengeti, Tarangire and Ishasha

Lions climb trees across northern Tanzania. The 2026 study drew its sightings from Tarangire, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti as well as Manyara. In the central Serengeti lions are regularly photographed on the limbs of acacias and sausage trees, and on the granite kopjes, which serve the same purpose. Because a Serengeti safari gives you several days among far more lions, that is where many travellers do see one off the ground.

Tarangire produces occasional sightings, mostly in the green months. It is not a reason to choose the park, which earns its place for elephants and baobabs; we cover the timing in Tarangire in elephant season. The Ngorongoro Crater floor has few climbable trees, though it is where the fly explanation was first written down.

Outside Tanzania the best-known place is the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park in south-west Uganda. The Uganda Wildlife Authority describes its lions spending the day in large fig trees above the plains where Uganda kob graze. It is a long way from the northern circuit and belongs to a different trip, usually one built around gorillas. We mention it so you can weigh Manyara’s claim fairly.

Next: When and where to look ↓Contents ↑

Visiting Lake Manyara: when and where to look

The season matters more than the hour. If the research is right that lions climb more in the wet months, the better odds fall between November and May, which is also when Manyara is greenest and best for birds. In the dry season the park is easier for general game near the lake shore. April and May bring the long rains, when parts of the floodplain can be impassable.

Inside the park, the lions are most often reported in the acacia woodland south of the groundwater forest, on broad horizontal branches a few metres up. Look into the shade of the big umbrella acacias, not at the ground, and look for a hanging tail or a leg. Your guide will also check with other drivers. If a lion is in a tree, keep the engine off and stay well back, as you would at any sighting.

Manyara is about two hours from Arusha on tarmac, and it sits at the foot of the road up to Karatu and the crater, so it fits easily at the start or end of a circuit. It is in our three-day Northern Circuit Express and in the five-day Manyara, Lake Eyasi and the Crater plan. Go for the park as it is, and let the lions surprise you.

Next: Questions ↓Contents ↑

Questions people ask

Nobody knows for certain. Researchers have suggested escaping biting flies, keeping clear of buffalo and elephant, and catching a breeze in hot, wet weather. A 2026 study found lions in trees more often in the wet season and in the afternoon, which fits several of these explanations.

Possibly, but do not expect to. The lions are seen in trees on some days and not on others, the park is small and thickly wooded, and a visit can pass without any lion sighting. Elephants, baboons, hippos and birds are far more dependable.

No. Lions are recorded in trees in the Serengeti, Tarangire and Ngorongoro as well, and in the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. Manyara is the place where the behaviour was first studied closely, in the 1960s, which is how it got its reputation.

Most lions can climb if the tree has a sloping trunk or low, broad branches, and cubs and young lions do it readily. Heavy adult males climb least. It is occasional behaviour for lions, unlike leopards, which use trees routinely to rest and to store kills.

The published evidence points to the wet season and the afternoon. In northern Tanzania that means roughly November to May, after midday. It improves the odds only slightly. No season makes a sighting likely at Lake Manyara.

Mostly large acacias with broad, near-horizontal branches a few metres above the ground, in the woodland south of the groundwater forest. Elsewhere lions use sausage trees and, in Uganda’s Ishasha sector, big fig trees. The branch has to be thick enough to take the weight.

Yes, for half a day or a day. The groundwater forest, elephants at close range, large baboon troops, the hippo pool and the birdlife are the real reasons to go. It is close to Arusha and on the road to Ngorongoro, so it adds little driving.

Last updated 3 October 2026

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