Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are

A guide to Africa's best game-watching

Most of us know Africa from the movies. In the famous Born Free, the film about Joy Adamson, her husband and their lion Elsa, spawned a whole generation lion lovers. In the 1980s, there was Out of Africa and Gorillas in the Mist, romantic and beautiful depictions of African bush and gorillas, respectively. No doubt, Hollywood is at least partly responsible for the heightened craze for safaris. The enormous growth in the tourist industry in Africa, however, has not been without consequence. Many large game parks and reserves are so crowded that were there are animals, there are lines. Others have fared worse. Crowds, for example, have driven elephants out of the Masai Mara reserve in Kenya. But wild Africa survives; it's still possible to witness the activity of herds of wildebeest, elephant, and zebra there, and prides of ions still roam, searching for their nightly kill.

Here is a very succinct animal-by-animal guide to the best game watching in Africa:

Cheetah

Where they live?: Usually found in low density in sub-Saharan savannas and arid zones where suitable prey occurs.

Best places to see them: Masai Mara Nature Reserve and Amboseli National Par, Kenya. Etosha National Park and private game ranches in Namibia, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.

Active time: The most diurnal cat, usually rests during the heat of the day.

Chimpanzee

Where they live?: In rain forests, savanna woodlands, montane forests (a kind of mountain forest) from Guinea, north of the Congo River through central Africa to Tanzania. Pygmy chimpanzees live in the rain forest south to the Congo River.

Best places to see them: Gombe National Park, Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania. Kibale Forest, Uganda.

Active time: Generally spend about half the day feeding, with a midday siesta.

Elephant

Where they live? Used to live everywhere south of the Sahara that had enough water and trees, but over three-quarters of the population were destroyed in the last two decades by ivory poachers. The survivors live mostly in protected parks.

Best places to see them: Chobe National Park and Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana. Etosha National Park, Namibia. Kruger National Park, South Africa. Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. The Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya is popular, but few elephants remain.

Active time: Feeds 16 hours a day and sleeps 4 to 5 hours. Bathes daily, but can abstain several days if no water is available.

A monkey. Photo by Elena.

Gazelle

Variétés : The Grant's gazelle is large with pale-to-dark tan coloring and white underparts. The Thomson's gazelle is smaller, with cinnamon coloring, a rump patch smaller than a Grant's, and bold, black side stripes and facial markings.

Where they live?: The Somali-Masai Arid Zone, from southern Sudan and Ethiopia to northern Tanzania, and from the Kenya coast to Lake Victoria (Grant's). Somali-Masai arid zone and adjacent northern savanna, from northern Tanzania to northern Kenya, with an isolated population in Sudan (Thomson's).

Best places to see them : Amboseli National Park, Masai Mara National Reserve, Meru National Park, Nairobi National Park, Samburu-Isiolo National Reserve, Shaba National Reserve, Sibiloi National Park and Tsavo National Park, Kenya; Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Serengeti National Park and Tarangire National Park, Tanzania (Grant's). Amboseli National Park, Masai Mara National Park, Nairobi National Park and Nakura National Park, Kenya; Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti National Park and Tarangire National Park, Tanzania (Thomson's)/

Active time: Day and night, peak activity generally early in the day, though.

Giraffe

Where they live?: Used to be found wherever trees occurred throughout the arid and dry-savanna zones  south of the Sahara. Eliminated from most of the West African (Senegal) and southern Kalakhari range (South Africa and southern Botswana) but are still fairly common, even outside wildlife preserves.

Best places to see them: Too numerous to mention; most approachable along roads in popular national parks.

Active time: Fefmales spend just over half the day grazing, males slightly less. Night is spent resting, especially during the darkest hours.

Gorilla

Varieties: The mountain gorilla has a long and silky coat, while the western or eastern gorilla has a shorter, sparser coat.

Where they live?: Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the lowland rain forest of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon (western lowland); eastern Zaire, and the adjacent highland areas near Rwanda border and isolated pockets of rain forests (eastern lowland). Also Rwanda, Uganda and Zaire (mountain).

Best places to see them: Eastern Zaire, especially Kahuzu-Biega National Park and Virunga National Park.

Active time: The average group of gorillas spends a little under a third of the day feeding, a little under a third traveling, and a little over a third resting, mainly at midday.

Hippopotamus

Where they live? Used to be found everywhere, south of the Sahara where adequate water and grazing conditions occurred. Now largely confined to protected areas, but still survive in many major rivers and swamps. 

Best places to see them: Almost any park or reserve with sizable lakes or rivers bordered by grasseland.

Active time : Hippos walk from 2 to 6 miles during their nightly forage. After five hours of intensive grazing, they return to water beds before dawn to spend the day digesting and socializing.

A leopard walking. Photo by Elena.

Lion

Where they live?: Throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, except in deserts and rain forests.

Best places to see them: Most major National Parks and Game Reserves have them, but the best places are the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the Serengeti National Park, both in Tanzania.

Active time: Lions spend nearly 20 hours a day “reserving energy”, and hunt most actively early and late at night, carrying over a couple of hours into daybreak. Lions become active any time day or night, hungry or gorged, if easy prey presents itself.

Rhinoceros

Varieties: Black and white.

Where they live?: Formerly widespread in the northern and southern savanna, Sahel, Somali-Masai, and southwest arid zones. Human population growth and poaching (rhino horns are valued as an aphrodisiac in Asian and Arab countries) have led to a steady decline. Now endangered everywhere, including Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

Best places to see them: Nairobi National Park, Solio Ranch Game Reserve, Kenya; Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. (Other good possibilities include Kruger National Park and Nhuhluwe Game Reserve, South Africa; Gonarezhou National Park and Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe).

Active time: The rhino is most active early and late in the day, but also moves and feeds at night. Least active during the hottest hours.

Zebra

Varieties: The Grevy's zebra has a distinct pattern of narrow stripes with a bullseye on the rump and wider stripes on the neck and chest. The mountain zebra is distinguished by large ears and a distinctive gridiron pattern on the rump. The plain's zebra is smaller than the Grevy's.

Where they live?: Restricted to the Somali arid zone of Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya. The only substantial population (several thousand) lives in Kenya's norther frontier district (Grevy's). Cape mountain zebras inhabit the southwestern and southern Cape Province in South Africa. Hartmann's race, another subspecies of the mountains zebra, are found in southern Angola and Namibia (mountain). Southeastern Sudan to Sout Africa and west to Angola, in Somali-Masai arid zone (plains).

Best places to see them: Meru Sibiloi National Park and Samburu-Isiolo National Reserve, Kenya (Grevy's). Mountain Zebra National Park, South Africa (mountain). Too numerous to list but Etosha National Park, Namibia, and Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, are some places where one can get very close (plains).

Active time: Active both day and night. Zebras graze an hour or so at a time at night. In early morning, the begin treks of up to 10 miles before settling again for the night.