Wildlife in Tanzania

The Big Five: lions, leopards, elephants, buffalo, and rhino can all be found in Tanzania.

All five can be seen in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area. The black rhino is the rarest of the five. They can be found in the Serengeti and Selous Game reserve, but they are easiest to see in the Ngorongoro Crater.

There are elephants and water buffalo in abundance in Tanzania, particularly in the Tarangire National Park, where herds of elephants outnumber people during the dry season (July - October).

The lion is also common in Tanzania, with prides of up to 60 living in some areas of the Serengeti. 

The Great Migration is one of the most extraordinary wildlife events in the world. It takes place in the Serengeti and Masai Mara as herds upon herds of wildebeest, zebra, and Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelle traverse the savanna in pursuit of water and new grasslands.

In their wake follow predatory cheetah, lion, and leopard. Following the wet season, the wildebeest give birth to over 8,000 calves daily, resulting in half a million calves being born in a week.

Then, they begin their treacherous 2,000-mile journey across the Serengeti to the luscious fields in the Maasai Mara in Kenya. The entire Serengeti ecosystem depends on this migration, with the vast columns of wildebeest providing sustenance for the predators, felines, and birds of prey following them. 

Aside from lions and leopards, other cats include the serval, caracal, and in the Ngorongoro, the elusive golden cat.

Cheetahs live in most of the northern parks except Lake Manyara. For the best chance at seeing cheetahs, head to Ruaha National Park.

Other carnivores in Tanzania include several species of jackal, honey badger, rock hyrax, the rare bat-eared fox, spotted and striped hyena, and the remaining population of Africa’s wild dogs, which can be found in Ruaha National Park.

On safari, expect to see roan antelope, sable, mongoose, impala, kudu, topis, kongonis, hartebeest (in Tarangire Park), eland, bushbuck, the spiral horned bovines, oryx, Kirk’s dik-dik, and giraffe.

Interestingly, the only place the giraffe cannot be found is in Ngorongoro Crater, it is thought that they cannot get up the steep sides. 

Tanzania is well-watered (relatively speaking) thanks to its monsoons. This means hippos and crocodiles can be found in most parks, but especially in Katavi National Park. Tanzania is also home to the waterbuck, sitatunga, and common warthog.

There are over 1,000 species of bird in Tanzania, some of which are endemic to the country, including the Udzungwa forest partridge, Pemba green pigeon, the Usambara weaver, and the Udzungwa eagle owl.

Ostrich, avocets, bitterns, shags, herons, ibises, jacanas, kingfishers, plovers, sandpipers, snipes can all be found in Tanzania. There are numerous raptors too, such as babblers, bee-eaters, bulbuls, canaries, crows, francolins, falcons. 

In Arusha National Park, you can find the colourful turaco and trogan. In Gombe National Park, there are over 200 species of bird, including the fish eagle and red-throated twinspot.

Head to Gombe National Park in the Mahale Mountains for the ultimate Jane Goodall experience (this is where she spent over fifty years furthering science’s understanding of human evolution).

In Gombe, you can trek up through the rainforest and sit and watch chimpanzees and their social activities for an hour. There are other primates here too, including the bush baby, patas, and vervet monkeys.

You can also take part in a chimpanzee habituation experience on Rubondo Island in Lake Victoria.

Other primates in the country include baboons and blue monkeys, which can be found in Gombe and the Mahale mountains. The colobus monkey can be found in the Serengeti by the Grumeti river.

There are some rare monkeys in Udzungwa Mountains National Park, including the Sanje mangabey and Udzangwa red colobus.

In the seas around Tanzania and the Zanzibar archipelago, you can see dolphins and whale sharks. If you are lucky, you may see humpback whales from Saadani National Park in Zanzibar.

Green turtles also breed at Saadani National Park and on Mnemba and Pemba Island. Zanzibar is one of the world’s most popular scuba diving destinations due to its diversity of life, clarity of water, and healthy coral reefs.

As well as marine life, Tanzania has a number of large lakes that are protected, allowing for populations of fish to thrive. Lake Tanganyika holds over 1,000 species of fish. Due to its age and isolation, the lake is a hotspot for biodiversity, and is most famous for its cichlids. Likewise, Rubando Island National Park is a protected breeding ground for tilapia and the Nile Perch. 

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