The Yaeda Valley, or Yaida Valley, is a swampy valley located in Mbulu District of

Manyara Region Manyara Region (''Mkoa wa Manyara'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The regional capital is the town of Babati. According to the 2012 national census, the region had a population of 1,425,131, which was lower than th ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands ...

. The Valley is situated south of

Lake Eyasi Lake Eyasi (formerly german: Njarasasee, "Njarasa Lake", and ''Hohenlohesee'', "Hohenlohe Lake") is a lake located in Karatu District of Arusha Region in north Tanzania. Lake Eyasi is the largest body of water in Arusha region. It is a seasonal ...

. The valley forms an

endorheic basin An endorheic basin (; also spelled endoreic basin or endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but drainage converges instead into lakes ...

with no drainage outlet. A low ridge running northeast–southwest separates the valley from the basin of Lake Eyasi. The Yaeda Swamp is fed from the northeast by the Yaeda River, which originates in the

Mbulu Highlands The Mbulu Highlands is a plateau in north-central Tanzania. The Mbulu Highlands lie between the basins of Lake Eyasi to the west and Lake Manyara to the east. The highlands extend northeast-southwest. A steep northeast-southwest-running escarpme ...

to the east.Hughes, R. H. (1992). ''A Directory of African Wetlands''. IUCN, 1992. pp. 253-254. On the valley floor are 16,200 ha of seasonal swamp with extensive areas of rush and sedge, and 8,000 ha of floodplain grassland with ''

Vachellia drepanolobium ''Vachellia drepanolobium'', more commonly known as ''Acacia drepanolobium'' or whistling thorn, is a swollen-thorn acacia native to East Africa. The whistling thorn grows up to 6 meters tall. It produces a pair of straight spines at each node, ...

'' thicket at the northern end of the valley that are inundated during periods of exceptionally high rainfall. Above the floodplain are approximately 12,100 ha of wooded hillsides, with ''

Vachellia tortilis ''Vachellia tortilis'', widely known as ''Acacia tortilis'' but now attributed to the genus '' Vachellia'', is the umbrella thorn acacia, also known as ''umbrella thorn'' and Israeli babool, a medium to large canopied tree native to most of Afr ...

'' near the edge of the floodplain, '' Vachellia kirkii'' woodland near the ''V. drepanolobium'' thickets at the north end of the floodplain, and surrounded by

baobab ''Adansonia'' is a genus made up of eight species of medium-to-large deciduous trees known as baobabs ( or ). They are placed in the Malvaceae family, subfamily Bombacoideae. They are native to Madagascar, mainland Africa, and Australia.Trop ...

woodland on higher slopes.BirdLife International (2019) Important Bird Areas factsheet: Yaida Chini. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 25/09/2019. The swamp is home to numerous

waterbird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

s, including

Cattle egret The cattle egret (''Bubulcus ibis'') is a cosmopolitan species of heron (family Ardeidae) found in the tropics, subtropics, and warm-temperate zones. It is the only member of the monotypic genus ''Bubulcus'', although some authorities regard ...

s (''Bubulcus ibis''),

Glossy ibis The glossy ibis (''Plegadis falcinellus'') is a water bird in the order Pelecaniformes and the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae. The scientific name derives from Ancient Greek ''plegados'' and Latin, ''falcis'', both meaning "sickle" a ...

es (''Plegadis falcinellus''),

Black-necked grebe The black-necked grebe or eared grebe (''Podiceps nigricollis'') is a member of the grebe family of water birds. It was described in 1831 by Christian Ludwig Brehm. There are currently three accepted subspecies, including the nominate subspecie ...

s (''Podiceps nigricollis''), Black-tailed godwits (''Limosa limosa''),

Ruff Ruff may refer to: Places *Ruff, Virginia, United States, an unincorporated community *Ruff, Washington, United States, an unincorporated community Other uses *Ruff (bird) (''Calidris pugnax'' or ''Philomachus pugnax''), a bird in the wader fami ...

s (''Calidris pugnax''), Fulvous tree ducks (''Dendrocygna bicolor''), and

Knob-billed duck The knob-billed duck (''Sarkidiornis melanotos''), or African comb duck, is a duck found in tropical wetlands in Sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar and the Indian Subcontinent from northern India to Laos and extreme southern China. Most taxonomic au ...

s (''Sarkidiornis melanotos''). Elephants (''Loxodonta africana'') and leopards (''Panthera pardus'') inhabit the grasslands, woodlands, and thickets. The surrounding country is ''Acacia-Commiphora'' bushland and thicket, and home to the

Hadza people The Hadza, or Hadzabe (''Wahadzabe'' in Swahili), are a Tanzanian indigenous ethnic group mostly based in southwest Karatu District of Arusha Region. They live around Lake Eyasi in the central Rift Valley and in the neighboring Serengeti Plateau ...

. The Hadza traditionally forage for wild food, including hunting, seed collecting, and gathering honey. Increasing numbers of

pastoralists Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The animal s ...

have moved into the valley, grazing their herds of cattle on the floodplain grasslands and in the swamps during the dry season.

References

Endorheic basins of Africa Southern Acacia-Commiphora bushlands and thickets Southern Eastern Rift Valleys of Tanzania Important Bird Areas of Tanzania {{Coord, 4, 0, 1.11, S, 34, 59, 59.7, E, display=title