Most people going for a safari in Tanzania are interested in the Big Five. These were traditionally the animals considered to be the most difficult and dangerous to hunt. The Big Five animals consist of the Lion, the Elephant, the Buffalo, the Leopard and the Black Rhino. Of these the Black Rhino can only be spotted in the Ngorongoro Crater and the leopards are shy, and the highest probability of seeing them is in the Northern Region of the Serengeti (the Seronera Valley). Besides the Big Five, more than 80 large Mammal species call Tanzania home, living in the 25% of the area of the country that has been demarcated into conservation areas and National Parks.
Tanzania has some of the best places that cater for an African Safari.
Not only does it hold about 20% of the continent’s mammal biomass, it is also home to Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in the continent, the Ngorongoro crater, which besides having the densest wildlife population, is the largest intact caldera in the world, the largest lakes in Africa (Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi), the second largest number of variety of birds found in the continent and Olduvai Gorge, where some of the most important hominid fossils were found and the location where the Great Wildebeest Migration takes place. This is also the place which has been waxed eloquent about by authors like Ernest Hemingway and by naturalists like David Attenborough. Jane Goodall pioneered her study of chimpanzees in Tanzania near the Gombe Stream.
Despite its abundance of natural wealth, Tanzania was not well known as a safari destination until recently, as it was overshadowed by both Kenya and South Africa. This was both due to lack of infrastructure, tourist centric policies and money spent in marketing. However, this has changed since the last two decades, where premier safari lodges and camps compete for the luxury market tourists and budget and mid-tier camps for the rest. There are now Tanzania safari packages that are tailored to help visitors experience the incredible variety of wild game found here.
The areas occupied by many national parks and reserves have been expanded to cover important channels and routes that are used by the wildlife. There are also been a heavy crackdown on poaching and other illegal activities by bringing villages into the fold and enlisting their help in protecting the animals. This article compares the differences between a safari in Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.