10 Cool Things about Animals (and more!) in Tanzania

Tanzania is known for its many animals and wildlife. There are many places where one can see many interesting animals, such as Tarangire National Park, Ngorongoro Crater, and Serengeti National Park. Our main purpose in visiting the trip was to see the great migration, but we ended up seeing much more that just that! We were lucky and ended up seeing many animals that are rare to see. Along the way we learned many facts about animals from our tour guides. Today I’ll share with you some of them!

1. Lions aren’t actually that great at hunting but all the animals are scared of them. Also, female lions are better at hunting than male lions. We were very lucky to see many lions during the trip. We saw a pride of twenty lions eating a wildebeest on the side of the road at Ngorongoro crater! We could even see blood on their faces 🙂

We also had a lioness sitting right next to our car in Serengeti!

2. Termite hills can take over 100 years to build! And when the queen termites die all the other termites die as well instead of going to find another hill. In Serengeti and Tarangire National Park there are many termite hills next to the roads.

3. Leopards like to stay in trees and will even drag their prey up a tree to eat them so they can avoid other animals who want their prey

Leopards and cheetahs have very similar appearances, but the main differences between the two are their spots and their body shape. Cheetah spots are a single dot, while leopards have a cluster of dots, and cheetahs have more slender bodies that are suited for running at high speeds.

4. Male ostriches have black feathers while females have brown feathers. Because the black feathers absorb more sunlight, the male ostriches take care of their eggs during the night while the females take care of them during the day

5. Hyenas can run at high speeds for hours until their prey gets tired, and then they eat their prey alive!

6. Hippos like to splash water on themselves with their tails. Although they do not eat a lot of food, they become very heavy because of their sedentary lifestyle. They do not fight particularly often, but we got to see many of them fight at Ngorongoro crater!

7. Elephants like to eat the bark of trunks because that’s where the water from the tree is. After eating the bark trees will often die because of the lack of water. Tarangire National Park is known for its elephants, and while Serengeti had lost many elephants in the past due to poachers, the population is now rising.

>8. We visited a tribe called the bushmen, who hunt exclusively using bows and arrows. They also like smoking marijuana :). We went hunting with them and they caught an animal called a dikdik and cooked it over a fire. Even before cooking they ate some of the internal organs raw.

9. During the wildebeest crossing, one can see hundreds of wildebeests crossing the Mara river. Many of them can get swept away in the current, especially if there are too many rocks, but even so many wildebeests get to the other side and find out that their parents haven’t crossed and will cross back to join them. We waited for five hours to see the crossing, but the next day we hardly had to wait to see one :”)

We managed to get some quality footage of the migration:

Many times they would approach the water but would not go in. During the first crossing, many had trouble with the rocks, but in the end they all made it 🙂

10. In addition to animals, there are thousands of types of birds in Tanzania. Some very beautiful ones we saw were the superb starling and the lilac-breasted roller.

We had an unforgettable first trip in Africa! We had never been on any kind of trip like this one, where there are so many animals, and we also were very lucky to see most of the attractions. I hope to return to Africa again another time.