Northern Tanzania

The Serengeti National Park is home to one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on Earth, as more than one million Western White-bearded Wildebeest and nearly half a million Zebra annually follow the rains across the Serengeti’s great grasslands. In total more than two million ungulates graze the Serengeti at this season. Of course with all this food about the predators are numerous and obvious. Black-maned Lions sit about seeming to wait for their dinners and breakfasts to come to them. Leopards and Cheetahs are as easy to see here as anywhere. And Spotted Hyenas are very common. Black-backed Jackals and Bat-eared Foxes are numerous. Aside from the multitudes of Wildebeest and Zebra ungulates will also include Serengeti Topi, Hartebeest (Kongoni), Cavendish’s Dik-dik, Eland, Steinbok, and plentiful Robert’s and Thompson’s Gazelles. We’ll have the chance to study both Bohor Reedbuck and (Chanler’s) Mountain Reedbuck. Little groups of Banded Mongoose cavort across the grasslands and we’ll see both Dwarf and Slender Mongooses too. We’ll also do our best to find the elusive little Oribi, shy Side-striped Jackal, and the Serengeti is one of the very best places in Africa to watch Serval.

The Ngorongoro Crater is surely one of the natural wonders of the world. Nearly three million years old, the ancient caldera is the remnant of a huge volcano that is now one of the most beautiful wildlife havens in the world. We’ll stay in a superb lodge amongst lichen-bearded forests seven thousand feet above sea level on the crater rim. Towering Euphorbias cling to the crater walls and on the floor, fever-and-fig tree forests provide shade for the awe-inspiring array of wildlife. Here some of Africa’s last Black Rhinos are still well protected and we’ve a decent chance of connecting with a Caracal or two. Black-maned Lions stalk through the grasslands, flamingos crowd Magadi Lake and giant-tusked Elephants roam permanent swamps where we’ll look for more elusive mammals such as Bushpig and Egyptian Mongoose.

To the east of the great grasslands the landscape takes on a different character as huge baobab and acacia trees gradually increase in frequency. Here over two thousand square kilometres of beautiful habitat is protected by the Tarangire National Park. The river Tarangire threads its way through the length of the reserve. In the mammal watching world Tarangire shot to prominence when a group of mammal watchers did a ‘big mammal day’ there in February 2019 and recorded a remarkable 64 species of mammal in the 24 hours!

We’ll not push ourselves quite so hard. However we’re sure to enjoy the huge concentration of Elephant, Impala, Grants Gazelle, Giraffe, Reedbuck, Wildebeest (here the Eastern White-bearded form) and Buffalo that make this place one of the best wildlife areas in East Africa. We’ll look for Klipspringer, Southern Tree Hyrax, Yellow-winged Bat and both Lesser and the beautiful Greater Kudu. At night we’ll see Spring Hares in abundance as well as Common Genet, Scrub Hare, White-tailed Mongoose and hopefully African Wild Cat. Lesser Galagos are frequent in the trees. In the ‘hoped for’ category are Zorilla, Aardvark and Crested Porcupine!