Wildlife in Serengeti National Park

Your odds, species by species

The bands below assume at least two full days of game drives with a guide in the central or southern Serengeti. Guaranteed means you would be unlucky to miss it, likely means most visitors see it, chance means a fair number do, and luck means a sighting worth talking about at dinner. The odds lean on Expert Africa's traveller statistics for the Serengeti migration area, which are trip reports rather than a systematic survey, read alongside TAWIRI counts and density studies.

Where you stay matters as much as how long. Elephant, buffalo and giraffe avoid the treeless short-grass plains of the south, so their odds drop there, while cheetah and lion are easiest on exactly those plains between December and March. Leopard is a Seronera speciality: the sausage and fever trees of the Seronera river valley are the classic place to look.

• Lion Guaranteed Seen by 97% of Expert Africa travellers; 21 prides monitored in the central study area, 2022/23
• Giraffe Guaranteed Masai giraffe, 98% of travellers; 12,078 in the ecosystem (TAWIRI, 2010); likely rather than certain on the open southern plains
• Plains zebra Guaranteed 97% of travellers; 207,166 counted in the ecosystem in February 2010
• Elephant Very likely 95% of travellers; more than 7,000 in the park (TAWIRI, 2020); scarce on the treeless south
• Wildebeest Very likely 93% of travellers; where the herds are depends on the month
• Buffalo Very likely 90% of travellers; about 60,100 in the park in 2020; scarce on the open southern plains
• Spotted hyaena Very likely 88% of travellers
• Hippo Very likely 81% of travellers; Retima pool near Seronera, the Grumeti and the Mara River
• Leopard Very likely 76% of travellers; best in the Seronera valley, a chance elsewhere
• Cheetah Very likely 69% of travellers; best on the southern and eastern plains in the wet season
• Impala Very likely 74,837 counted in the ecosystem in 2010
• Grant's and Thomson's gazelle Very likely 119,707 Grant's and 165,973 Thomson's counted in February 2010
• Topi Very likely 38,497 counted in the ecosystem in 2010
• Eland Good chance 36,297 counted in the ecosystem in 2010
• Nile crocodile Good chance At the Grumeti and Mara river crossings
• Roan antelope Takes luck Only 13 counted in the 2010 ecosystem flight
• Greater kudu Takes luck Only 5 counted in the 2010 ecosystem flight
• Wild dog Takes luck 7% of travellers; no resident packs inside the park since 1991

Species silhouettes from PhyloPic (CC0, CC BY and CC BY-SA). Sighting percentages are Expert Africa's aggregated traveller figures for the Serengeti migration area, read 6 Oct 2026; the page does not state sample size or period. Counts marked 2010 come from TAWIRI's February 2010 aerial census of the whole ecosystem, which is wider than the park.

How many wildebeest are in the Serengeti migration?

Three official-sounding numbers are in circulation, and a fourth from satellites now challenges all of them. TAWIRI, the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, flew a census from 28 to 31 March 2023 over 4,782 km² and counted 1,571,960 wildebeest, an increase of 171,000 on its previous count, with most animals on the southern short-grass plains. TANAPA's own 2024 crossing guideline uses about 1.35 million wildebeest, and its park page speaks of over 1.5 million wildebeest, zebras and predators.

In 2025 a team publishing in PNAS Nexus counted the herds in the northern Serengeti and the Masai Mara on very-high-resolution satellite images. They found 324,202 to 337,926 animals in August 2022 and 502,917 to 533,137 in August 2023, and concluded that the population is probably fewer than 600,000, about half the 1.3 million figure that has been quoted since the 1970s. The authors themselves note that different coverage and timing may explain part of the gap.

The honest summary: TAWIRI's March 2023 aerial count put the migratory herd at about 1.57 million wildebeest, an independent satellite study counted barely a third to half of that in the north in August, and the true number is now openly debated. Either way, the herds you see in February or August are the largest herds you are likely to see on any safari.

Zebra and Thomson's gazelle have no current TAWIRI count that we could open. The February 2010 ecosystem flight gave 207,166 zebra (plus or minus 37,638, standard error) and 165,973 Thomson's gazelle (plus or minus 34,218), in the wet season, when many animals were outside the counted area.

Where the herds are, month by month

TANAPA, TAWIRI and the camps' own operating calendars agree on the outline. The herds spend roughly December to March on the southern short-grass plains, much of it around Ndutu just over the boundary in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and calve there in February. They move north-west through the centre and the Western Corridor from about April to July, reach the north and the Mara River from July to October, and return south through Lobo and the east in October and November.

The herds do not follow dates. Rain decides: a late short rains season can keep them in the north into November, and an early dry season can push them off the southern plains in April. Treat the table as the usual pattern, not a timetable.

TANAPA puts calving on the short-grass plains between Naabi gate and the Ngorongoro highlands, "mid-February (8,000-12,000 births per day)", with more than 250,000 calves born each year.

Lions: more than 3,000 claimed, 21 prides counted

TANAPA's park page says the Serengeti holds 3,000-plus lions. It is the authority's figure, and we found no published park-wide census behind it. What is counted carefully is the central study area: the Serengeti Lion Project, running since 1966 and now part of TAWIRI's work, monitored 205 lions in 21 prides plus 13 male coalitions in central Serengeti in 2022/23, with named prides at Barafu, Cub Valley, Gol Kopjes, Naabi, Maasai Kopjes, Mukoma Hill, Transect, Vumbi and Zebra Kopjes.

Density varies sharply across the park. A 2015 call-in survey on the south-eastern plains measured 14.36 lions per 100 km² (95% credible interval 9.04 to 29.31). That is why the kopjes of the south and centre, Gol, Simba, Maasai and Moru, are the classic lion stops, and why lion is the one big cat you can count on in the calving season.

The lions here also carry one of the longest research records of any predator. The Snapshot Serengeti camera grid of 225 traps watches 24 prides, and in March 2023 a coalition of five males killed a well-known pride male at Kibumbu Kopjes after he had fathered 19 recorded cubs since 2018 (TAWIRI).

Leopard and cheetah

Leopards are common in the central Serengeti by African standards. A camera-trap study in the central study grid, published in 2020, measured 5.41 leopards per 100 km² in the dry season (95% credible interval 2.23 to 9.26) and 5.72 in the wet season (2.44 to 9.55), and called the park one of the strongholds of the species in Africa. There is no published park-wide total. In practice your odds depend on time in the Seronera valley: 76% of Expert Africa travellers saw one.

Cheetahs favour the open plains, especially in the wet season when the gazelles are there. The Serengeti cheetah study, running on the plains since 1974, found the population nearly self-replacing over 20 years, with lions as the main killer of cheetah cubs. No current population figure is published. The odds are best in the east and south: 69% of Expert Africa travellers saw a cheetah, and the figure rises sharply for camps on the eastern plains.

Elephant, buffalo, giraffe and hippo

TAWIRI's 2020 census, as reported from statements by its Serengeti research centre and the chief park warden, put the park's elephants at more than 7,000, up from about 6,000 in 2014, and its buffalo at 60,100, up from over 50,000. Both avoid the open short-grass plains, so you will see them in the woodland of the centre, the Western Corridor and the north rather than on the calving grounds.

Masai giraffe rose from 5,246 in 2006 to 12,078 in 2010 across the ecosystem. Hippos need permanent water: the Retima hippo pool about 17 km north of Seronera, the Grumeti in the Western Corridor and the Mara River in the north are where to look. The 2010 aerial estimate of 1,306 hippos is so imprecise (plus or minus 1,068) that it says more about counting hippos from a plane than about hippos.

Wild dogs: gone from the park since 1991

The Serengeti's resident wild dogs disappeared in 1991, according to a 2019 paper in Ecology and Evolution. Dogs reappeared in Loliondo, east of the park, in 2000, and by 2004 there were 26 animals in four packs outside the boundary. From 2012, TAWIRI and the University of Glasgow released 66 dogs from threatened Loliondo packs in the western Serengeti.

The packs have stayed in the wider ecosystem without recolonising the park, and the 2019 study suggests competition with lions and hyaenas keeps them off the plains. Only 7% of Expert Africa travellers saw one. If wild dogs are the point of your trip, the Serengeti is the wrong park.

The plains game behind the migration

The wildebeest get the headlines, but the plains carry a huge supporting cast. TAWIRI's February 2010 flight over 26,827 km² of the ecosystem is the most recent full count we could open, and the numbers below come from it. They describe the ecosystem, which is far larger than the park, so treat them as an order of magnitude.

Birds in the Serengeti: more than 500 species

TANAPA puts the park's list at over 500 bird species, including ostriches, eagles and flamingos, and SafariBookings gives the same figure.

SafariBookings names the regional specials of the Serengeti plains: Fischer's lovebird, grey-breasted spurfowl, rufous-tailed weaver, Usambiro barbet and grey-crested helmetshrike. From about November to April, Palearctic migrants such as European bee-eaters, storks and harriers are present, and resident birds breed in full plumage.

What is rare, and what nobody has checked

Some species are present but rarely seen. Roan antelope (13 counted in the 2010 flight, 29% of Expert Africa travellers), greater kudu (5 counted), aardvark (3% of travellers) and pangolin (1%) all fall in this group. Fringe-eared oryx was seen by 22% of Expert Africa travellers; TAWIRI publishes no record of where in the park they live.

Several smaller species are often listed for the Serengeti without a primary source behind them. Bat-eared fox was recorded in the 2010 flight. Serval, caracal, aardwolf and honey badger are left off the grid above because no survey we could open confirms them.

Every figure on this page carries its year and source. Where the authority's round number has no published count behind it, as with the 3,000-plus lions, we say so in the text.

Sources

• TAWIRI, Annual Performance Report 2022/2023 (wildebeest census, lion monitoring) (checked 6 Oct 2026)
• TAWIRI, Serengeti Ecosystem aerial census report, February 2010 (checked 6 Oct 2026)
• TANAPA, Mara River Migration Crossings Guideline, revised 2024 (checked 6 Oct 2026)
• TANAPA, Serengeti National Park page (checked 6 Oct 2026)
• Duporge et al. (2025), PNAS Nexus: satellite count of wildebeest (checked 6 Oct 2026)
• Belant et al. (2019), Global Ecology and Conservation: lion density (checked 6 Oct 2026)
• Allen et al. (2020), Biodiversity and Conservation: leopard density (checked 6 Oct 2026)
• Kelly and Durant (2000), Conservation Biology: cheetah viability (checked 6 Oct 2026)
• Jackson et al. (2019), Ecology and Evolution: wild dogs in the Serengeti (checked 6 Oct 2026)
• African Elephant Journal, 14 June 2021: TAWIRI 2020 elephant and buffalo figures (checked 6 Oct 2026)
• Africa Geographic, 13 May 2015: wild dogs in the Serengeti (checked 6 Oct 2026)
• Snapshot Serengeti, research page (checked 6 Oct 2026)
• Expert Africa, Serengeti migration area: traveller sighting rates (checked 6 Oct 2026)
• SafariBookings, Serengeti birds (checked 6 Oct 2026)