Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park

Wildlife & Animals

Expert

Philip is our Zambia expert and author of more than 20 guidebooks to Africa.

Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park offers an easy opportunity to get close to many common animals that can be found in other parks and reserves around the country. You’ll see plenty of elephants in and outside the park in the Dry season, but the most compelling reason to visit this wildlife sanctuary is to track white rhinos on foot, a spine-tingling experience which may well become one of your trip highlights.

ElephantCommon

GiraffeCommon

HippoAbundant

BuffaloCommon

ZebraCommon

WildebeestCommon

White RhinoCommon

Black RhinoNone

LionNone

LeopardNone

CheetahNone

HyenaVery Rare

Wild DogNone

Wildlife Highlights

The small park doesn’t support any large predators (except for crocodiles). While this limits the variety of good sightings on a game drive, it also frees you up to focus more on less sought-after animals. Troops of vervet monkeys and chacma baboons provide endless entertainment. And this is the best place to get up close to giraffes, which are not present in most other Zambian parks.

Best Time for Wildlife Viewing

As the park is small and contained, it is easy to see the animals at any time of the year. Elephants are seen in their biggest numbers from July to September, but prefer Zambezi National Park across the river in the Wet season (November to April). The best time to see Victoria Falls is January and February and June to August.