The night belongs to a completely different cast of characters than the day. Lake Manyara National Park is one of the few Tanzanian parks where night game drives are facilitated, and the nocturnal ecosystem revealed by a spotlight in the Manyara woodland is one of the most charming and least-anticipated aspects of this compact park.
The bush baby — specifically the greater galago and the lesser galago — is the most sought-after nocturnal species on Manyara night drives, and with good reason. These small primates are entirely nocturnal, spending their days sleeping in tree hollows and emerging at dusk to feed on insects, nectar, and gum seeping from acacia bark. The spotlight picks up their eye-shine at extraordinary distances — the tapetum lucidum behind their retinas reflects light back in an intense orange-gold flash that makes a 30-gram animal visible from 80 metres. At close range, a bush baby pausing in the spotlight beam to stare directly at the light source presents a face of outsized, luminous eyes that is simultaneously comical and deeply appealing.
The African genet — a long, lithe, spotted carnivore related distantly to the mongoose — is another regular find on Manyara night drives. Genets are adept climbers and hunt along branches as readily as on the ground, their semi-retractile claws and flexible spine making them capable of pursuing prey through three-dimensional woodland space that most carnivores cannot access. A genet pausing on a branch in the spotlight, its spotted coat vivid against the dark bark, its tail ringed in black and cream held in a curve above its back, is one of the most photogenic subjects the African night produces.
Porcupines rattle through the undergrowth with an audible percussion of quills. Serval cats pause in the spotlight beam for a moment of assessment before dissolving back into the long grass. Civets leave their heavy, musky scent at marking posts along the path. The African wood owl calls from the groundwater forest in a deep, repetitive duet with its mate. The night drive at Manyara typically lasts 2–3 hours and returns guests to the lodge for a late dinner that tastes, somehow, better eaten in the glow of what the night revealed.