In the extreme southeast corner of the park there are several pools of fresh water which form oases in otherwise dry country. These pools attract a wide variety of water birds and mammals.

The thick-set antelope with a brownish-gray coat and a white ring around the rump is the common waterbuck. As their name implies waterbucks usually live near watercourses and will take to water when pursued. Only the males are horned. They are territorial, but waterbuck are unusual in that several adult, subadult and juvenile males may be found mixed with herds of females and young. The territorial bull will tolerate them as long as they behave submissively, approaching him with head and tail extended while licking the air. Females perform the same submissive display.

A very small antelope, which will be seen either singly or in pairs, is Kirk's dikdik. They weigh about 4 kgs. and the female is slightly bigger than the male. In color they are drab grey and they have very large, luminous eyes and proboscis-like noses. Only the male is horned. Like the hyrax, they have the habit of depositing their droppings in a selected spot, where large quantities will accumulate. These serve as territorial markers.

The water holes are the feeding ground of the saddle-bill stork. This is a distinguished looking bird with black head, neck, wing coverts and tail, white body and bright red bill banded in black with a yellow 'saddle'. Saddle-bills are to be seen either alone or in pairs, feeding on fish, frogs and small mammals. They move with a slow deliberate gait, but strike quickly if they see suitable prey.

Another frog-eater and found in the same damp environment is the hamerkop or hammer-headed stork. This brown bird, with dark bill and feet, is easily recognized by its odd hammer-shaped head. Many legends surround these birds and it is considered unlucky to kill one.

In the same marshy habitat you may be lucky enough to see a monitor lizard. These huge reptiles, often 2 m in length are very cryptic against the background grasses and reeds, as their yellow and green markings blend in well with their surroundings. Monitor lizards feed on eggs and fledglings of ground nesting birds, frogs, fish and carrion.

A small carnivore likely to be seen in this area is the black-backed jackal. This dog-like animal has a silver-streaked black saddle and yellowish-rust colored flanks and legs. Apart from feeding on the kills of larger predators and gazelle fawns, jackals eat a variety of small creatures including scarab grubs which they extract from the enclosing ball of dung. Jackals have a very interesting social system as they are one of the few mammalian species in which the male and female mate for life.

Four species of mongooses have been recorded in the Park. The marsh mongoose is very rare and the three most likely to be seen are the dwarf, banded and slender or black-tipped. Banded mongooses are stocky little animals with a wiry coat marked by dark transverse bands. They live in groups of up to 30 individuals and can often be seen following one another very closely as they move like a huge snake winding through the bush. They sometimes follow the trails of elephants and buffaloes and eat the dung beetles and millipedes which they find in the piles of droppings. The pack can roam a large area looking for food and keep in contact with each other by continual twittering. Within a pack's territory there are usually several dens between which they wander. Young are kept in the den until they are old enough to forage and it is believed that they may be suckled by different females.

Although it is on the western limit of their range, gerenuks are sometimes seen in this part of Tarangire. This elegant, brown antelope is easily recognized by its long neck and legs and white underparts. Gerenuks are browsers and are often seen standing up on their hind legs, with long necks outstretched, feeding on tender leaves and shoots of a bush. Gerenuks typically live in dry country and seldom drink, getting most of the water they require from food. They live either in small family parties of one adult male with several females and young, or in pairs. The males have heavily ridged horns which curve backwards. Females have no horns and a dark patch on the crown.

The ostrich is the world's largest bird and the only flightless bird native to Africa. Males are conspicuously black and white with naked necks and thighs which turn bright pink during courtship. The breeding season extends from around August to December. Single males defend large territories, court females who enter, singly or in small groups, and guide them to a nesting hollow, where several different hens may lay up to 30 eggs, at the rate of one every other day. This is too many eggs for one ostrich to cover and the extras are left around the nest and fail to develop.

Incubation is divided into day and night shifts, the black male by night, the female by day when her neutral color makes her harder to see. The female who incubates the nest is known as the 'major' hen and is the first to lay an egg in the nest scrape. The young that hatch in December or January tend to band together and adult pairs may creche their young together making flocks of up to 60 chicks.

Ostriches are very fast runners and are able to maintain their pace for a considerable time. This, together with the fact that they have the ability to swerve sharply, sometimes enables them to outwit predators such as lions, which are very fond of their flesh.