So you’re going on an African Safari and are wondering what are some of the best ways of spotting wildlife on your Safari. Today, I will share 20 tips on improving your wildlife spotting skills to help you find a large variety of wildlife on your Safari to Africa.
Spotting African wildlife is not an easy thing. The African Safari parks are expansive and you can end up driving around the park for hours without seeing any animals if you don’t know what to look for when spotting African wildlife. In addition to this, some species are elusive and need special skills in order to spot them.
1. Search for Animals in the Mornings & Evenings
The first basic rule of spotting African wildlife is that you will rarely find good wildlife sightings after 10 am and before 4 pm. The reason for this is the fact that most parks in Africa get extremely hot from midday to late afternoon and animals seek shelter in thickets, bushes, and trees which makes them more difficult to spot.
During the early morning and the late evenings, you will find animals grazing freely in the open grassland which makes them easier to spot and this time is your best bet at spotting most wildlife.
It is for this reason that most safari companies organize morning and evening safari drives to maximize the chances of having good sightings.
2. Look for Watering Points
Most African wildlife needs to drink water at least once a day. This means that they will be in search of water and will congregate around the watering holes to have their fill for the day.
With many watering holes in the parks being located in clearings that do not have a lot of trees or bushes, spotting an animal here becomes a bit easier than chasing it around the park.
I addition to this, many watering areas in African Safari parks have crocodiles and this increases the chances of you spotting a crocodile hunt. Though these are rare, you have a greater chance of spotting a crocodile catching its prey.
The icing to the cake is that many predators are attracted by the grazing animals drinking water in the park and you may encounter a real-life hunt if you visit a watering point.
3. Do Safari in the Dry Season
With watering holes being fewer and far between in the dry season, spotting animals becomes easier since large numbers of animals will be gathered in the few available drinking points and will bring with them predators that are out easy prey.
In addition to this, when it’s dry, the grass is normally not very long and the trees would have already shed their leaves. This will make it easier for you to spot animals without struggling to make out shorter animals like gazelle from the grass.
You will need to remember that the dry season is normally the most popular time to go for a safari and you may need to pay more in travel costs to enjoy the benefits of this dry season.
4. Use a Well-Connected Guide
If you want to spot the best sightings of African Wildlife, use a professional tour guide who has experience in spotting animals and who has a good network of park guards who will advise them on the best places to find great animal sightings.
In addition to this, A good, experienced guide will have been to the park you will be going to multiple times with other guests. This means that they are more intimately familiar with the park and will instinctively know where the best wildlife-spotting locations are.
5. Use the Right Equipment
The thing about the animals you will find on safari is that they are not normally near your safari vehicle. Now with the fact that most of the safari destinations don’t allow visitors to drive outside of the designated roads which means that you will not be able to drive up to the animals and have a closeup view.
Having a good pair of binoculars will help you spot animals that are far away even when you are not able to get very close to them.
The brands that are popular with a lot of people are :
- Nikon 7576 Monarch Binocular ( View price on Amazon)
- Bushnell Waterproof Binocular ( View Price on Amazon)
These two pairs are popular for their quality and ease of use and I think they are worth a look.
The other way you might want to use to spot animals that are far away if you don’t have a pair of binoculars is by using a camera that has a good zoom lens. You will have the dual advantage of being able to see animals that are far away and that you can capture the sight in a photo.
6. Choose the Right Safari Vehicle
As you can see in my video of a visit I made to a national park, you the choice of vehicle you use will affect your ability to spot animals when on Safari. I was using a station wagon and one of the difficulties I faced when trying to spot animals is that the grass was sometimes taller than my vehicle and I needed to get my head out of the vehicle to try to stand tall enough to spot some animals.
When going on an African Safari, ensure that you use a vehicle whose top comes off and allows you to stand. The standing position will give you a perfect vantage point to spot animals that you would not have spotted when seated.
I wrote an extensive guide on choosing a safari company. Check it out to find out how to get a safari company that has vehicles well suited for spotting African wildlife.
7. Go on a Hot Air Baloon Safari
The best way of spotting large numbers of animals at once is by taking a hot air balloon safari. Although these safaris have high price tags, you will have the opportunity to experience breathtaking views and a wide variety of animals from a unique angle.
The fact that hot air balloons are quiet and move slowly will mean that you will not scare away any animals and this will give you a rare slight of the African savannah and its wildlife quietly grazing in their natural state: untouched by humans.
8. Use Vegetation to Find Animals
When looking for a particular type of animal, you need to look for the vegetation where they are mostly found in. For instance, you are more likely to spot a leopard if you drive to the woodlands and hang around the places that have tall trees.
Prior knowledge of the natural vegetation of the animals will help but you will get most of your guidance from the tour guides who have more familiarity with the terrain of the park you are visiting.
9. Look for Vantage Points
A number of parks would have high points that give you a perfect vantage point to spot animals all around the area. If you drive to such points, you will have a near birds-eye view of the terrain and you will be able to spot many large animals like the elephants, giraffe, and wildebeests.
To find vantage points, talk to the Park rangers for tips on the best high places to get a panoramic view of the park.
10. Ask Other Tourists
On a number of occasions, you will not be the only one in search of animals in the park. You may find that there are a number of other safari vans around you and it’s likely they have had better luck than you that day. It would be a good idea to ask them whether they have found anything unique where they were before. They may have found something interesting on their route and they will be able to guide you to find it.
Have a short chat with any other tourists in other trucks and ask them if they have seen anything interesting. This is what most tour guides do when they meet with other vehicles and they use that knowledge to find other interesting sightings.
11. Visit Multiple Parks
You will find that many parks do not have the complete list of animals that can be viewed on an African safari. Due to the different ecosystems and habitats, some wildlife will be in larger populations in some parks than others.
This means that you will increase your chance of spotting a larger variety of animals if you visit at least 2 parks on your African Safari.
Luckily, many tour operators usually include a visit to 2-4 national parks in your itinerary so this means that you will not need to plan the visits yourself. One thing you may need to enquire about is the types of animals you expect to find in each of the parks (Like this list of Animals you will find at the Maasai Mara in Kenya)
and research on what is the likelihood of you finding these animals on your visit.
12. Have a multi-day Safari
Another way of ensuring that you have a higher possibility of spotting a large number of animals is going on a safari that will last multiple days. This will give you the opportunity to maximize your chances of seeing some of the more rare species.
Going on a safari for just a day may mean that you will arrive on a rainy day or on a day that has more tourists or where the animals have moved to a different side of the park and you may end up seeing a small number of animals as a result.
13. Look for circling vultures
If you want to spot a freshly caught animal that a predator is eating, a good sign to look out for are vultures circling a particular area. Thought this is not a sure-fire way of finding unique animals, you increase your chances of spotting animals like the cheetah or hyenas.
14. Drive slowly ( Don’t be in a hurry)
Most parks will require you to drive slowly in the park and this helps to ensure that the animals are not disturbed by large amounts of noise and also to eliminate any incidents.
Driving too fast in the national park will cause you to miss animals that are standing still and camouflaged in the tall grass.
You may also chase away some animals that are shy around humans if you drive too fast or when your engines are too loud.
15. Pay Attention
Since most of the safari animals have good camouflage against predators, they will not be easy to spot if you are not very keen. Sometimes, an amazing sighting is hidden in the tall brown grass and it will take a bit more attention for you to spot it effective
16. Reduce Noise
Avoid making any unnecessary noises like music or loud talking when you are near an animal. You are likely to chase the animals away if you are an audio distraction
Its mostly advised for you as a tourist to speak in hushed tones when near animals and try to keep the banter to a minimum if you want to see some of the rare species like leopard or rhinos.
17. Avoid Crowded parks
Parks that have large crowds are usually popular but they are not the best places to spot animals in peace.
The animals are usually highly disturbed by the many vehicles that come near them and some may retreat to sections of the park that are more isolated to get away from the stream of vehicles.
Visiting less crowded parks gives you the opportunity to see wildlife that is mostly undisturbed and that don’t see as much human presence as the popular parks.
I will have to warn you, though, that the popular parks are popular because they have the greatest variety of wildlife and you may reduce the possibility of seeing many types of animals if you just visit the less popular parks.
18. Be patient
One of the things you will need to remember is that an African Safari is very different from a visit to the zoo. The animals are located far from each other and they are constantly moving. This means that you will need to be patient if you want to find the best sightings of animals.
Some of the best sightings are difficult to find and you will need to allow your tour guide sufficient time to find the animals before giving up your search for the day.
A Final Word
As you prepare for your trip to Africa, I would like to recommend a few products that would help make your life easier.
- Shoes: I recommend that you check the Keen Hiking shoes. I have written an extensive article on the best shoes for an African safari and this shoe checks all the boxes for things you should look for when choosing a shoe for Africa. (Check out the Keen Hiking Shoes on Amazon)
- Camera: If you are not big on photography, I would not advise you to buy a brand new camera for your African Adventure. Good cameras can be expensive and buying a camera you will not use is not a good use of your limited budget. I advise that you rent a camera instead and Lens Rentals have a great Safari Camera Kit perfect for someone traveling to Africa. If you are thinking of getting into photography, then you can invest in a new camera but before you do, check out my pick for the best Safari Camera for a Beginner like Me
- Information About Africa: I have created a YouTube channel that focuses on things about traveling to Africa that only Africans can tell you about. Check out the channel for insights about African culture and things you can do as a traveler to optimize your trip. You should also visit TripAdvisor forum posts (Here is the Kenya Forum) and ask questions about your particular situation. There are a lot of people who are happy to help you out.
- Choosing a Safari Company: I have written an extensive article on how to choose a safari Company. You can. Check it out before starting the process of searching for a safari company.
- Consulting Session: If you have any questions you would like to ask me about Kenya, I would invite you to contact me for a 30-minute consultation session where I will share my knowledge about East Africa and share experiences that will help you make your trip easier. Reach out to me on email – antonynjoro@gmail.com
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