As the year draws to a close, we find ourselves reflecting on the moments that made 2024 unforgettable, and for the staff at Africa Adventure Consultants, many of those moments happened while on safari. We got together to compare notes on our favorite wildlife sightings of the year and it was a great one! Here are some of AAC’s top wildlife sightings of 2024…
My favorite wildlife sighting in 2024 was of meerkats in Tswalu Kalahari Game Reserve in South Africa. It’s really fun to get up close and personal with habituated meerkats as they go about their business as if you weren’t there. They are incredibly active – constantly moving, looking, digging, pushing, hugging, climbing, burrowing and more. The little ones love to wrestle and play.
I’ll never tire of spotting lions in the wild – male lions, mothers with cubs, small and large prides, sleeping, playing. And during my Zambia safari this spring, I had my first nighttime sighting. While in Kafue National Park, known for its large population of lion, we had a memorable evening surrounded by a pride of about a dozen. Completely unbothered by our presence, some napped while some roamed around our vehicle. Watching them with only the light of the moon and a single tracking light felt so intimate and makes it my top wildlife sighting of the year.
My favorite sighting of the year was watching cheetahs resting at dusk in Kenya’s Loisaba Conservancy. As the sun set, it cast an orange glow over the savanna. The wind swept over the grasses and the fur of the cheetahs’ backs as they lay on a termite mound, resting but ready to chase should the air bring them the scent of prey. Cheetahs are solitary predators once fully mature, but in their youth, they stay together as siblings to keep company and hunt. We came across a brother-sister pair, one of a handful in the conservancy. We sat with them for a while, enjoying their beauty, listening to the wind, and relaxing into their energy as the day came to a close. It made me catch my breath with its incredible beauty.
My top wildlife sighting was seeing wild dog while at Zarafa Camp in Botswana. It was a big pack with little pups. My guide and I were enjoying breakfast while watching the wild dog, when they suddenly took the opportunity to kill an impala! We quickly packed breakfast, followed the pack and saw the entire thing happen. It was amazing!
Gorilla trekking was my wildlife highlight of the year. My gorilla treks in Rwanda and Uganda were both memorable, but seeing a mom and baby in the Kanywani Group in Uganda was particularly special. This is a small family of six gorillas with a silverback (Kanywani), four females and a new baby (Kibirangwe). The trek was on a sunny morning in November and we were very lucky to get clear views of the gorillas in an open clearing. Their gentle interactions while they ate and groomed each other were expected, but watching their attention to the baby was a delight. Each gorilla group is different and you never know quite what to expect. My expectations were definitely exceeded on that beautiful morning in Uganda and I will forever remember the Kanywani gorilla group.
My top wildlife sighting was in Tanzania’s western Serengeti where I was able to observe a leopard teaching her nearly adult daughter how to behave around the unexpected herds of wildebeest that showed up in October. By the time the full migration is in the west in June-July, this juvenile leopard will be emancipated and hunting alone. These months are an excellent opportunity for her to learn the skills she’ll need to be a mother and raise her own cub one day.
Elegant, romantic, and with an Arabian Nights feel, Botswana’s San Camp’s classic white tents offer 360 degree views over the Makgadikgadi Pans, my home base to explore by foot, 4×4 game vehicle, horseback and quad bikes. The wildlife here is diverse and unique as guests have the opportunity to not only spot lions, elephants, wildebeest and zebra, but also lesser-known species such as brown hyena, bat-eared fox, aardvark, aardwolf, and my 2024 favorite – meerkats! Within easy reach of San Camp are four meerkat colonies that are semi-habituated. The meerkats, all with their own personalities and back stories, happily busy themselves with digging, playing and keeping watch for predators while guests observe within close proximity. Visits with these playful creatures allow you to sit close to their burrows, hold eye contact with them and as the meerkats pop in and out scanning for danger you could even find yourself being be used as a convenient vantage point!
It was early in the morning at Phinda Private Game Reserve in South Africa when our guide had spotted a pride of lionesses and their cubs. As the safari vehicle came to a stop, I could see the lionesses starting to yawn and flop to the sand road. They kept watchful eyes on their five cubs, all no older than four months. As the cubs continued to explore the area, two of them tumbled clumsily into the open, lost in their world of play! As we watched, the cubs seemed to draw courage from their mother’s calm presence, their mock battles growing bolder, giving me the biggest grin while I watched the battle unfold. Finally, exhausted by their scrimmage, they broke apart to greet their mothers and join in their nap. So often the most exciting parts of a safari are the most brutal encounters, but it was such a privilege to enjoy watching these future lion kings hone their skills.
I was fortunate on my Zambia safari to have experienced some extraordinary encounters, but witnessing a family of elephants crossing the river in Lower Zambezi National Park was a highlight. This sighting was not just special, but also deeply moving and a reminder of the magic and resilience of the natural world. One morning, while out on a tiger fishing safari with our guide Henry, I watched a family of elephants make their way together across the river. There’s something undeniably majestic about elephants. As this family moved together, each elephant had its place in the group – mother keeping a close watch on the calf, older sibling guiding the young and the elders leading the way. Their trunks reached out to touch and communicate, reinforcing the bonds that hold them together. It was a vivid reminder that, for elephants, family isn’t just important – it’s everything.
My favorite wildlife sighting was in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park where I saw lions lounging in a baobab tree. While tree-climbing lions can be seen in myriad parks in Africa, it’s not always a common sighting and this was the first time I had seen them lazing in the limbs above.
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Photos courtesy of the AAC team: Kent Redding, Beth McCabe, Madison Noble, Diana Garcia-Hernandez, Sara Stark, Tracy Stevens, Angie Voigt, Ciara Manning, Nell Pollak and Brooke Dare