Tanzania
February 2 to 17, 2024

Safari Overview

Learn more on the Trip Itinerary page.

Timing is everything. The vast herds of wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle that constitute the Great Migration of the Serengeti ecosystem arrive in the southern shortgrass plains soon after seasonal rains return the plants green hue. February is the perfect time for the production of babies, for herbivores and the dependent carnivores. It’s also time for the “snowbirds” from Europe and Asia to join many colorful resident species and partake in the flush of productivity. Flowers and butterflies also thrive on the bounty that nature provides. You may see about 50 species of mammals and over 300 species of birds, as well as some interesting and colorful reptiles. The montane forests and alkaline lakes of Arusha National Park, the massive baobabs and other habitats of Tarangire, the oasis within Ngorongoro Crater, and the plains and Precambrian outcrops of the Serengeti offer the very finest wildlife watching you can imagine.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Watch Tarangire’s enormous elephants (dwarfed by towering baobab trees) as they frolic in wetlands or feast on about 300 pounds of grass or leaves in a typical day.
• Search for dramatic predators—lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas—and observe their social systems.
• Enjoy colorful weavers building nests, rollers sallying out for fat flying insects, insanely colorful starlings popping up almost everywhere, oxpeckers feasting on small arthropods on giraffes and buffalo, stately secretarybirds and storks stalking the grasslands, and much more.
• Compare the distinctive ecological strategies of the herbivores (e.g., zebra, giraffe, hippo, buffalo, eland, impala, hartebeest, dikdik, hyrax, hare) and small carnivores (e.g., mongoose, bat-eared fox, jackal, serval, honey badger).
• Marvel at dense wildlife herds contained by the lush caldera walls of Ngorongoro Crater.
• Experience the astonishing abundance of large mammals involved in the Great Migration of the Serengeti.
• Learn of the discoveries of early hominids at Oldupai Gorge and see Maasai living their traditional pastoral lifestyles, albeit now with cell phone communication.

SAFARI OPTIONS

• Continue your journey on our Mkomazi extension from February 16 to 20, 2023. Discover many arid-adapted species such as southern gerenuk, fringe-eared oryx, lesser kudu, vulturine guineafowl, eastern yellow-billed hornbill, and golden-breasted starling. Visit repatriation programs for endangered African wild dogs and black rhinos.
• After the Mkomazi extension, continue your journey on our Mountain Gorilla extension. Trek the forests of the Virunga Mountains to encounter Rwanda’s gentle giant, the mountain gorilla. Contact us for more details.

Itinerary Updated: November 2022