The 10 most interesting animals in Zimbabwe (Big Five included)

Zimbabwe’s elephant population is estimated at around 100,000 — among the largest of any country — so you’ll struggle not to see them. In Hwange, late-dry-season waterholes can draw herds of dozens at a time. In Mana Pools, bull elephants are famous for rearing up on their hind legs to reach seed pods high in the trees, a behaviour that has made the park a pilgrimage for photographers.

Lions sleep up to 20 hours a day, so timing is everything: early mornings and late afternoons are when they move, call and hunt. Hwange is the classic place to find them, while Matusadona on the Lake Kariba shore feels quieter and more remote. Listen out at night — a lion’s roar carries for several kilometres.

The hardest of the Big Five to spot, and the one guides get most excited about. The Matobo Hills — a UNESCO World Heritage Site of balancing granite boulders — are widely regarded as excellent leopard country, with endless rocky ledges and dens to hide in. Look up: leopards haul their kills into trees to keep them from scavengers.

Herds can run into the hundreds, and a big one crossing a floodplain is a spectacle in itself. The buffalo earned its Big Five place as one of the most dangerous animals to hunt on foot, and the lone old bulls — known as “dagga boys” — are the ones to give the most room.

Zimbabwe protects both white and black rhino, and it is one of the few countries with a meaningful black rhino population. Because of poaching, rhino locations are closely guarded, so most sightings happen with rangers. In Matobo you can track white rhino on foot with a guide — a completely different experience from watching from a vehicle. To tell them apart: white rhino are grazers with a wide, square lip; black rhino are browsers with a pointed, hooked one.