Mammal Hippopotamus amphibius
Noisy, territorial and surprisingly fast. The Serengeti’s hippo pools hold hundreds in a single bend of river.
Hippos spend the day in water and the night grazing, walking many kilometres from the river. In the Serengeti the Retina hippo pool and the Grumeti River hold big groups, and the Ngorongoro Crater’s Ngoitokitok picnic site has its own resident pod.
In Ruaha the Great Ruaha River shrinks in the dry season and the hippos crowd into the remaining pools, which makes for noisy, dramatic viewing from the bank.
Retina hippo pool and the Grumeti River in the Serengeti; the crater’s Ngoitokitok pool; the Great Ruaha River.
Guide’s tipThe grunting chorus carries for a kilometre. Follow the sound and you will find the pool.
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.
Africa’s largest lake, with papyrus specialists and lakeshore birds.
Quiet island park with forest birds, waterbirds and sitatunga.
Tree-climbing lions, groundwater forest and a soda lake full of waterbirds.
A volcanic caldera with black rhino, lions and big grassland 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.
Acinonyx jubatus
Built for the short grass plains. Watch one scan from a termite mound in the southern Serengeti.
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.
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.
