Now that I’ve told you all about our accommodations while staying in the Serengeti National Park, I’m excited to show you some of the animals we were able to see and capture during our various game drives! The Serengeti National Park has always been a bucket list item for me, so I was thrilled to finally be experiencing it. I promise I won’t bore you with too much chatter and get to the pictures quickly!
The Serengeti National Park is huge, covering 5,000 square miles of land. The park itself was established in 1951 and sees more than 350,000 visitors a year. It was named after a Massai village word for “Serengeti” which loosely translates to endless plains or land. And it’s true. Any which way you look, it looks like the land goes on forever. Humans are prohibited from visiting the park without a licensed and registered guide or group and those guides have very strict rules they have to follow.
We took multiple game drives during different parts of the day. We experienced early morning, sunrise game drives, midday drives, as well as evening, sunset game drives. We were the most successful during the morning and evening drives as we found most of the animals to be sleeping or hidden during midday.
So now what you came here for, animal photography! Since that’s going to dominate this post, I’m going to share snaps and captions this time, unlike the Lake Manyara post a few weeks back. Here we go!
Before we even made it to Kati Kati, our guide got a call about a few leopards. These are super rare to see, our guide explained, so we rushed over right away to see them. They were pretty well disguised by the trees and brush but we were able to see enough! It was dinner time for them. You can see a glimpse of a gazelle.
We also got our first glimpse of elephants in Serengeti! They were pretty far away from where our vehicle was but I was so excited to see elephants no matter what. They are my favorite and I love that they travel as a pack/family.
Almost as soon as we got settled into our camp, we were able to head out for our first game drive!
Some of the first animals we encountered were cheetahs! We actually came upon them stalking and attempting to nab a gazelle for dinner. They ultimately gave up their pursuit and ended up relaxing together.
Gazelles were everywhere! You could almost always spot them. But they were super elusive when it came to capturing them on camera. They are super quick and skittish. I was excited to nab this shot!
Another elusive animal was the hippo! I love hippos, I think they’re so goofy and cute, even though I know they’re incredibly dangerous. Since they spend most of their time with the heads and bodies underwater, they were fun to watch but not as fun to photograph. So anytime I saw a hippo group, I tried to just enjoy their fun game of head whack-a-mole.
I did manage to catch a pool of hippos with a little family of elephants walking in the background, though! This is one of my favorite shots from my entire trip.
Zebras are plentiful throughout the Serengeti but we got a really special treat when we came upon a group with a beautiful rainbow stretched out in the background.
We didn’t see very many monkeys in the Serengeti, unlike Lake Manyara. But we did manage to spot these 2 cuties hanging on the side of the road. We also didn’t see a ton of alligators or crocs but here’s some proof that they are there!
Since lions aren’t present in Lake Manyara, our group was unbelievably excited to see them in the Serengeti. Our first lion encounter came during our first game drive. So lucky! A female lion had just brought her male counterpart dinner and was hanging out while he enjoyed his meal. She was a little curious about us, as you can see!
How stunning is he?! He didn’t seem entirely into his dinner while we were watching him. He looked more tired and hot than anything else.
This was hands down one of the coolest moments we had on our game drive. A family of elephants walked so near to our vehicle we could have reached out and touched them (we didn’t, of course!). One elephant even walked up to our vehicle and tried sticking its trunk through an open window! It was breathtaking and humbling. These animals are beyond gorgeous and majestic. Being in their presence was pure magic.
Another animal we loved spotting was the giraffe! I will admit they were pretty hard to photograph. They’re long and tall so it can be tough to capture all of their parts clearly. They also aren’t very sedentary. They’re constantly moving their heads and necks. Similar to the hippo, I usually just tried to enjoy their presence rather than take a million failed pictures.
We didn’t get to see any warthogs up close and at a great angle. But I did nab this shot to send to my mom. It’s Pumba after all!
The dogs of the Serengeti! Hyenas could usually be seen quickly trotting through the brush and grass. We did get to see this guy on the right laying down though! I have to say, The Lion King captured their likeness pretty well!
In the middle of one of our drives, our guide got a call about another Leopard spotting! We rushed over to the location since we already knew one spotting was rare for one trip, but two?! Almost unheard of. This time we came upon a mama leopard hanging out with one of her babies! Like any young child, her baby was super restless and just wanted to explore the area. It was so cute and fun to watch her prance through the grass while her mama looked on.
We spotted some dik-diks and waterbucks!
Another amazing encounter with lions! This time it was a whole pride, complete with mama lions, papa lions, and a handful of cubs! All relaxing and enjoying the amazing weather. One of my favorite pictures from the trip is this one:
The Serengeti is a bird watcher’s paradise! We saw so many different kinds of birds. While birds don’t necessarily excite me, I was intrigued by these 2 here! The colors of the bird on the left were simply stunning. I’ve never seen anything like it. I loved watching the owl on the right. A small group of birds was hanging around him and he was so sassy and spunky getting them to leave him alone. Such a little character!
There’s something about a giraffe’s tongue and watching them eat that I find so entertaining!
This moment was amazing! We were driving along in our vehicle keeping a lookout for any animals we could find. Our driver stops mid-drive and says “look over to your left, in the tree!” It took a solid 5 minutes for any of us to spot the leopard in the tree. It was almost a half-mile away and was so hard to see clearly. Our driver had somehow managed to spot this big cat from so far away! It was amazing. It didn’t last long either. In the blink of an eye this gorgeous feline had jumped down and disappeared into the brush.
And now for some of my favorite elephant photos I was able to take!
On our way out of our camp to head back to Ngorongoro, we spotted these two elephants below walking away from the camp. It felt symbolic that they were leaving while we were leaving.
This wraps up my time in the Serengeti National Park. This experience holds such a special place in my heart and I hope I can return one day.
I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the amazing animals I was able to see on my trip! If you have any questions about my trip, head over to the Contact page and reach out! I’d love to chat.
Off to the Ngorongoro Crater!
