The Epic Animals List

This is a list of all the animals we saw on the safari in chronological order. It is very exciting and completely surreal. This also includes a list of highlights for some activities on certain days, from our notebook!

Further down the list is more of a description of the scene we saw, as opposed to a laundry list. Nonetheless - enjoy!

June 25 - Ngorongoro Crater

June 26 - FAME Hospital

  • Pancakes at Rhino Lodge (Katherine, Honest, and Benedict, as Tim was sick at this point)
  • 1 Tim at a hospital on a saline drip, after being sick from 5:30 am - 11 am)
  • Tim in all the blankets on the car ride to the FAME hospital
  • Benedict making an amazing dinner
  • Tim watching YouTube helped him calm down after being so sick and visiting the hospital, Minecraft videos are a lifesaver
  • Benedict and Honest were particularly worried about Tim, which I could tell from their expression when Tim emerged from the hotel room to get into the car. While their language was calm and collected, their expressions gave it away

June 27 - Lake Natron

  • 5 giraffe family (first giraffe of the safari!)
  • 2 giraffes in the distance (boy and girl)
  • Lots of flamingos
    • Lesser Flamingos are pinker than Greater Flamingos
  • 1 giraffe in the sunset
  • Wildebeest
  • Zebra
  • Ibis
  • Herons
  • Skeleton of the birds
  • Cattle grazing at the hotel

June 28 - Serengeti, Northern Area, Slept at Lobo Lodge

Animals

  • Zebra
  • Wildebeests, including a mating sound
  • General Great Migration activity
  • Lioness sleeping on a rock and then waking up, cleaning herself, and retrieving 5 cubs
  • 2 lionesses hiding under Acacia trees
  • Vultures drying out. Four types of vultures: white-backed, leopard-faced or Nubian, griffin, and hooded vulture
  • Vultures circling and waiting for the kill
  • Two different types of elephant families crossing the road
  • Elephant alone in the distance
  • Elephant crunching and eating reeds loudly, crunch crunch crunch
  • Warthog family going to the mud together, rolling around in the mud, and then leaving together
  • Impala: a harem of females and their male, a lone male, and observing the long-twisted horns
  • Several Jekyll
  • Oribi, essentially mini-antelope
  • Hyrax (which are rodents related to elephants!)
  • Secretary bird hunting for snakes in the fire
  • Vulture tornado
  • Topi
  • Hartebeest
  • Buffalo in water swamp
  • Baboons with babies on their back
  • Zebras having sex
  • Ostrich, specifically a male peeing and pooping
  • Thompson Gazelle
  • Grand Gazelle

June 29 - Serengeti, North and Central Area, Slept at Osupoko Tented Lodge

  • 3 giraffe family, eating
  • Many giraffes from afar (20+ throughout the day)
  • White-headed giraffe with its family
  • Waterbucks
  • Pride of lions sleeping on rocks
  • Lionesses eating a carcass under the trees
  • Lines and lines of wildebeest and zebras in a migration north: in the distance, taking a shortcut near the road
  • Many more (which I forgot to record)

June 30 - Serengeti, Central Area, Slept at Osupoko Tented Lodge

  • 2 ostriches, female trying to attract the male to mate, male was not interested
  • Baby and mom leopard in a tree. Honest found it! The baby was eating and playing with food on the lower branch. Mom sleeping and then watching the baby. 20+ safari cars arrived to watch after Honest radioed about it. Giraffes were nearby and got nervous. One giraffe was watching the leopards while the others are. The baby took the food to a higher branch, then Mom grabbed the food and took it to the ground. The baby jumped onto the ground. We watched for 15-20 minutes.
  • Topi in a pack with Thompson gazelle nearby
  • Zebra and wildebeests grazing
  • 6 giraffes in one family eating in the distance
  • Hippos! Snoozing in a pond. Two males compete with one another by showing their teeth and play-wrestling. Other hippos pooped with a loud sound and their tail acted as windshield wipers to remove poop! One mated with another. One jumped out of the pond and ran quickly across to the other side of the pond. Two real fights.
  • Sleeping Nile Crocodile
  • Baboon family crossing the road. Babies on multiple parents’ backs. One limping across
  • Conservation area museum
  • Warthog family rolling in the mud then crossing the road into the tall grass
  • Hyena walked over to the mud pool but was scared of our car. We moved up a couple of meters to give it space, and it got right in. An open tourist vehicle came so it hid in the grass. Tim spotted two more that were also in the grass
  • Ugali with chicken and veggies for lunch at the camp - very good
  • Handwashing underwear and the camp staff brought me buckets and detergent to help. Their expression of respect as they watched me handwash my own underwear!
  • Resting for the remainder of the day. We were out from 6 am - 3 pm, much longer than our “half day, morning drive” that we planned. The staff called Honest, asking if we were coming back!
  • Dinner was BBQ pork with coconut curry of veggies
  • We both took a “talking shower” - quite an experience
  • Listening to birds at the edge of camp and quietly watching them
  • Honest using the physical therapy ball for his foot, “playing soccer”
  • Hanging out at the fire pit
  • Watching the stars with Eli and seeing the Massai constellations
  • Eli spotted a hyena with his flashlight on our way to my tent. The hyena walked away after being discovered.

July 1 - Serengeti, Central and Western Area, Slept at Osupoko Tented Lodge

  • Saw a zebra at camp
  • 3 hyenas sleeping near a gazelle
  • Herd of gazelle and 4 cheetahs following them. (First cheetahs of the safari!!) The cheetahs turned around and hung out under a tree after the gazelle saw them. Their heads popped up for a family chat about what to do. Two started rolling around in the grass and play-pouncing one another. All males. The others lay down to nap. The gazelles were caught between watching the cheetahs and the safari jeeps, which was funny to watch.
  • Black-shouldered kite in an Acacia tree
  • Black ground bird, the Grand Hornby
  • Zebras and wildebeests in 1000+ animals crossing (running) to the river. Lions hung out nearby. The zebra saw the lionesses and stopped walking. The lions finally got up and walked away - with 15 safari cars following them. At the river, the zebras made a ton of noise. It is a form of communication to keep the zebra family together. Dust kicks up when they are running and so families are separated. We saw the lines again for the migration later as they left. They came from the Western side of the park.
  • Leopard sleeping in a tree with its gazelle catch hanging in another tree nearby (Tim spotted the hanging gazelle remains!) Kilometers-long wildebeest and zebra lines were seen behind the leopard.
  • Hippos
  • Crocodile with an open mouth to evaporate water
  • 2 giraffes in the distance
  • 1 elephant in the distance
  • Baby hippos on shore with the dad
  • Zebras!
  • Picnic near another hippo pool
  • Dikdik, male and female pair. The smallest antelope species
  • Long-tailed starling, bright blue
  • 15+ herd of giraffes along the Grumeti River. One giraffe walked into a herd of zebra, waterbuck and gazelle. No one seemed to mind!
  • Great Migration - lines of wildebeest and zebra
  • Finding a field of 1000+ zebras and wildebeests. Driving up close to them and just watching. Lots of noises and mating. Honest made a similar noise in mimicking them and they all backed up quickly. Lots of tsetse flies. The wildebeests resting in the field were females who didn’t want to be mated with, so they sat down. This is the mating season. This group probably came from the west. When the sun came out, they were resting in the shade of the tree. We took a selfie. One calf was drinking milk from its mom.
  • The group of gay giraffes. 23 male giraffes and they were all staring at us. One was trying to have sex with another, following it around. Near the Grumeti River

July 2 “Cat Day” - Serengeti, Central Area, Slept at Osupoko Tented Lodge

  • Leopard crossing road at down, right next to the car!
  • 2 lions with cubs walking near a gazelle
  • 6 lions walking (3 teens) near gazelles. Another on top of a mound and crossed in front of the other car
  • Lots of gazelles
  • Sedo-billed stork, female has yellow eyes and that is the entire difference between females and males in their look
  • Hyenas walking
  • Lions hunting gazelles
  • Zebras and wildebeests
  • Vulture nest
  • Lion family of 7-8 eating together, including 3 teens. The 3 teens finished and started playing with one another. You could periodically see the rib cage glistening red from the meat.
  • A huge pack of zebras, including some babies that were less than one month old, all were eating. This group is part of the migration, but only does most of the migration - not all of it. The “Lazy Migration” with wildebeests. Both zebras and nearby elephants were using the trees to scratch their backs.
  • Elephant family eating on a hill with 6 young ones. 3 were close to us. Very cute. One baby tried to take the grass from mom’s mouth, but mom didn’t let go!
  • Another group of giraffes!
  • Two cheetahs hanging out on termite mounds. Looking around for their own food and predators. Super cute and they were just sitting on top!
  • Rhino Project building. There was a ranger there who shared a ton of facts with us. There are 30+ Black Rhinos in the Serengeti and about 20 in Ngorongoro Park. The poaching in 1993 left 2 females in Serengeti and a male in Ngorongoro smelt them from afar and migrated to mate with them. They have built up the population from there.
  • Rhino chasing! We were looking at about 15 elephants when Honest heard there might be 3 rhinos on the radio. we stopped in several locations to try to spot them near a lake and then in a field. We aren’t sure if we saw them or ostriches, but it was fun chasing them. We decided later that it was rhinos based on other accounts also!
  • Lunch: Chapati (bread), Makande (hominy is maize, with beans and veggies), and minced meat sauce
  • Dinner: Fried fish, pilau, ugali, pineapple, and green lentil soup

July 3 “Elephant Day” - Serengeti, Central Area, Slept at Seronera Lodge

  • Said goodbye to Osupoko Lodge
  • Pair of giraffes eating the tops of trees
  • Elephant family with 3 young babies, less than 2 weeks old. The babies were exploring their surroundings and just goofing around. Running back and forth and going up on its hind legs. The adults swooped in and surrounded the babies when they got too hyper. A teenager walked very close to the car. We watched them all cross the road.
  • Elephants on the hill
  • Elephants again on the road (60-90 elephants!)
  • A leopard snoozing in the tree - a female
  • Lesser and Greater Flamingos. The Lesser Flamingos have a black beak and black stripe and are pinker. The Great Flamingos are more white with black feathers underneath. There are 6 million flamingos in total in the world. 5 million are the Lesser Flamingos, and 1 million are the Greater Flamingos.
  • Eland herd
  • Gazelle herd
  • Male Leopard snoozing in a tree right next to the car. He was probably mating with the female nearby given the proximity. Females drive mating by leaving their urine in bushes when they are in heat. Interested males come to mate. Honest found this guy, then 5 safari cars showed up! The leopard tried to pretend to sleep to get the cars to go away.
  • An elephant family took a bath in the mud and drank water. Several teens, one baby. They drank water with their trunks. They took turns throwing mud and water on themselves - amazing! Another elephant family waited patiently for the first family to be done at the water/mud area!
  • Hippo out of the water eating grass
  • 2 elephants in the bushes
  • A secretary bird hunting
  • Another possible rhino
  • 2 lionesses sleeping with 3 cubs of different ages. Mom had a lot of flies and her tail kept hitting a cub and waking it up when trying to get rid of the flies!
  • Young male leopard sleeping in a tree. He woke up to watch something and then jumped down. Very close to us!
  • Redback, a type of antelope that I saw next to a pool of hippos in the central area!
  • 2 giraffes (of a herd of five), including one licking its nose!
  • Hyenas sleeping on the side of the road
  • Baboons in a tree - a baby was trying to climb and turned around back to mom! So cute! Adults jumping around too
  • Another leopard in the tree - FOURTH LEOPARD IN A SINGLE DAY!!
  • Lion in a tree

July 4 - Serengeti, Central Area, Flew to Zanzibar (in the Indian Ocean) and Slept There

  • Lions in the river got scared by the hot air balloon and ran out of the ravine. There were 2 females and 4 cubs. 2 of the cubs got separated from the group and made low-level noises of “where’s mom?” Mom responded by calling them, and they walked back to her by passing close to our car. Afterward, they walked down the river bank for a while and we followed them watching.
  • Gazelles stopped to watch the lions
  • I got nauseous so we raced to the visitor’s center. On the way, we passed an elephant that we startled, which made a loud screech at us. We raced passed zebra, wildebeests, and other animals.
  • Secretary birds
  • Guinea fowl
  • Mongoose family