Mammal Acinonyx jubatus
Built for the short grass plains. Watch one scan from a termite mound in the southern Serengeti.
The cheetah is the fastest land animal and the big cat you are most likely to see hunting. It needs open ground, so the short grass plains of the southern and eastern Serengeti are its heartland, and mothers with cubs are a common sight in the calving season.
Cheetahs often climb termite mounds or fallen trees to look for prey, which makes them easier to find than leopards. We keep our distance from a cheetah that is hunting so that we never spoil the chase.
Open plains of the Serengeti, especially around Ndutu and Namiri; occasionally in Tarangire and Ruaha.
Guide’s tipCheetahs hunt in daylight. Mid-morning, when the lions have gone to sleep, is cheetah time.
Sightings are never guaranteed: these are wild animals in wild places. What we can promise is a guide who knows where to look.
Destinations
The parks and reserves where our guides look for it, each with its own best season and safaris.
Huge elephant herds, ancient baobabs and Tanzania’s endemic birds.
Vast plains, the Great Migration and big cats all year round.
Tanzania’s largest park: big predators, baobab plains and 570+ bird species.
Keep exploring
Loxodonta africana
Tarangire’s big herds are the classic sight: families drifting between baobabs to the river in the dry season.
Panthera leo
The Serengeti holds one of the largest lion populations left in Africa. Prides of twenty are not unusual.
Panthera pardus
Secretive and beautiful. The Seronera valley’s sausage trees are the best place in Africa to find one by day.
Diceros bicornis
Critically endangered and closely guarded. The Ngorongoro Crater is the most reliable place in Tanzania to see one.
Syncerus caffer
The Big Five’s heavyweight. Herds of several hundred are a daily sight in Arusha National Park and the crater.
Giraffa tippelskirchi
Tanzania’s national animal, with jagged star-shaped patches. Common almost everywhere except inside the crater.
Equus quagga
The migration’s other half. Hundreds of thousands of zebra move with the wildebeest across the Serengeti.
Connochaetes taurinus
The Great Migration itself: 1.5 million animals circling the Serengeti, calving in the south each February.
Tell us your dates and the birds or animals you most want to see. We’ll reply within 24 hours with a route and a full quote.
