Amazing Wildlife In The Serengeti Tanzania
The star area for African safaris in Tanzania will always be the largest national park which is Serengeti. After my day at Ngorongoro Crater (which I still suggest should be included in any multi-day safari in Tanzania), I spent most of my time in the Serengeti and it certainly didn’t disappoint with all the amazing wildlife sightings as well as the interesting overnight stays at the lodges within the national park. It was here in the Serengeti during my second game drive day that I saw the 5th of the Big Five animals I still needed to see which was the leopard so I ended up getting all five within my first two days on safari!
Of course in addition of the Big Five animals, I saw many other incredible animals in the Serengeti too as shown in the video below.
The diversity of wildlife here in the Serengeti was huge with all sorts of animals of different sizes, shapes and colours. Of course there were the bigger ones like the elephants, hippos and giraffes all the way down to small birds. I’m sure there are even smaller interesting life like rodents and insects too but we didn’t bother to look for them.
The Great Migration
I came to the Serengeti in September because I wanted to catch the Great Migration which is an annual event where masses of zebras and wildebeest migrate from the southern region to the northern region and even up to Kenya for greener pastures during the dry season. This Great Migration involves huge herds crossing a few rivers and the nature drama happens here when hungry crocodiles are waiting in the water. This natural event is so mind blowing and chaotic that I’m doing an entirely separate article along with photos and video footage of it as I was fortunate enough to see these big herds in action.
Many of the animals were quite beautiful such as the giraffes, cheetahs, impalas and many colourful birds. There were also some ugly ones including hyenas and vultures but they were just as interesting. The wildebeest, sometimes known as gnus are not that pretty either especially when you put them side by side with zebras as they are commonly found together.
To my surprise, I saw a lot of animal families consisting of moms, dads and their little ones. In addition to families of elephants, zebras and lions, I was quite lucky to spot an ostrich family as well as a warthog family.
In addition to seeing lion cubs, it was a personal objective of mine to see cheetah cubs since like the lion babies, they are also so cute. On my final day in the Serengeti, my safari guide Leo found a beautiful cheetah family consisting of a mom and her two cubs. This was yet another one of many moments so special that I had to post a separate article with photos and video of these cheetahs. I’ll put together a new video showcasing all the baby animals I saw on safari.
As I already mentioned, it was here in the Serengeti that I saw leopards. In fact I saw a few of them (solitary) since they tend to be sleeping up on trees during the daytime and the safari guides seem to know which trees to find them. However, since they are usually sleeping, it’s hard to actually see their faces but again luck was with us when there was one leopard who was awake and I was able to get shots of its beautiful face.
Of course cheetahs and leopards were not the only big cats I saw since many lions were spotted on each game drive day and not all of them were sound asleep during the daytime hours.
One of the lion sightings ended up being one of the most special experiences of my entire safari tour. This was when we encountered a pride of lions returning from an unsuccessful hunt and the females called out to their cubs in hiding. The lion cubs then came running out for a heartwarming reunion with their family. I was so lucky to catch the entire sequence complete with sounds of both lion adults and cubs that I dedicated a totally separate lions pride article with both photos and video of this special moment.
The Beautiful Scenery
Although the animals are the stars of the Serengeti, I should mention that many areas of this huge national park is quite beautiful with its natural scenery. The baobab and acacia trees are of course iconic to Africa.
As an added option, I included a balloon safari flight in my itinerary while in the Serengeti which gave me another perspective of the landscape and wildlife. This is documented in an upcoming separate article with photos and video footage shot from the sky!
A Surprise Favourite
I knew that lion and cheetah cubs would be personal favourites of my African safari but what became a totally surprise favourite was the Thompson’s gazelle, particularly the adult males. The males have big horns and from a photo they might look like big animals like the impala and other deer-like animals. But in real life they are actually quite small which makes them so cute to me.
My time spent in the Serengeti was unforgettable with not only the amazing animals and beautiful scenery but also because of my stays in the camp lodges which were really out in the middle of nowhere. Staying out in the bush turned out to be a very unique and enjoyable experience for me. If you missed my video tour of my Serengeti accommodations, check it out.
Although the Serengeti was the biggest component of my African safari in Tanzania, it wasn’t the final national park in my itinerary. There was one more game drive day at a national park called Tarangire which will also be documented in a separate article here.
