Mammal Panthera leo
The Serengeti holds one of the largest lion populations left in Africa. Prides of twenty are not unusual.
Tanzania has more lions than any other country, and the Serengeti–Ngorongoro ecosystem is their stronghold. Big prides live along the Seronera River and on the crater floor, where the grass is short and the hunting is easy.
Lake Manyara and Tarangire are famous for lions that rest in trees, draped over a branch to catch the breeze. Ruaha, in the south, has some of the largest prides we know, often in areas where you will not see another vehicle all day.
Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater for numbers; Lake Manyara and Tarangire for tree-climbing lions.
Guide’s tipLions hunt at night and sleep by day. Be in the park at first light to see them still on the move.
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.
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 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.
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.
