For our annual Classic Safari in Zambia, we visited the often overlooked southern African country of Zambia. We spent ten days exploring the beautiful African wildlife of Lower Zambezi National Park and Kafue National Park. As this trip is geared towards first time safari goers, we didn’t just focus on wild cats, giving people the opportunity to really appreciate all the animals we encountered. Read the rest of our Classic Safari in Zambia 2024 trip report to see what else we saw.
Highlights of the 2024 Classic Safari in Zambia
Leopards: We photographed nine different leopards, but the biggest highlight was time spent with a male that was mating with two different females. It turned out one of the females, was the daughter of the other female the male was mating with. Both females threw themselves at the male, trying to get him to mate with them.
Lions: We saw two different prides, and spent a fair amount of time with two males patrolling their territory. Highlights for the guests were a couple of very close encounters, where the males walked just a few feet from us. We saw them feed on a carcass and drink, both special encounters!
Elephants: We spent a ton of time with elephants as our group was obsessed with them. It was fantastic to watch herd social dynamics playing out in front of us, watching browsing behavior, and watching males fight for dominance.
Detailed Classic Safari in Zambia Trip Summary 2024
Day 1: Everyone landed in Lusaka, the captial of Zambia, where we settled into the hotel for the night, after a fun dinner where we presented what will happen over the course of the trip.
Day 2: We arose bright and early to head back to the airport, to take a bush flight to Lower Zambezi National Park. Our guides from Kutali were patiently waiting for us at the gravel airstrip. We piled into two safari gameviewers and started to make the drive toward Kutali, our camp for the next few days. Since none of our guests had never been to Africa before, we took it nice and slow, stopping for all the common game, like impala and Chachma baboons. Our whole group of guests had a mild obsession with elephants, so we spent a fair chunk of time with a five month old calf that was bumbling along behind mom. She was adorably cute. As we continued our way towards camp we found a couple of sleeping male lions and even more impressively a large bull Eland, a true rarity.
We were greeted by deliciously refreshing drinks at camp, where we settled in, took in the beautiful river views, before heading back out for our afternoon game drive.
We encountered the lions again, still sleeping, and surprisingly unnerved by elephants feeding extremely close by. Continuing on we found a Cape buffalo in a nice mud-wallow and then stumbled upon two leopards in a tree. They were still sleeping, but the temperatures started to drop so we figured they would probably soon get up. The thick neck of one of the leopards revealed it as a male, the other leopard was much smaller and therefor likely a female. She raised herself up, walked along a branch, and climbed over to the male, throwing her body into the face of the male. She wanted to mate. Reluctantly, he obliged. We were ecstatic. Then, all of a sudden, another leopard revealed itself in a different part of the tree. Another female. She too made her way to the male, obviously just as interested in mating with him. Reluctantly he obliged once more.
Seemingly to get away from his eager partners he climbed down the tree, but his peace and quiet didn’t last long. The two females quickly followed and continued their passionate pursuit of him. We watched him mate with the females, back-and-forth for the next hour and a half. The females didn’t seem to share the same affinity for each other that they felt towards the male, often retreating quickly as the other one approached.
We learned later that one of the females was the daughter of the other, and it was obvious she was submissive to her mom.
We finished the afternoon by encountering a pack of ninteen wild dogs. They ran after a warthog, but since it was quite dark already, we didn’t pursue them, not wanting to impact their hunt negatively.
It was an incredibly exciting first day in Africa for our guests.
Day 3: As we ate breakfast overlooking the Lower Zambezi river, as night turned to dawn, our guests excitedly told us about all of the animal noises they heard from their safari tents. Grazing hippos that sounded like washing machines, and cackling hyenas in the distance that raised their curiosity. As we left for our mourning game drive we found another female leopard in a tree. She came down, and carefully stalked some impala, but was spotted and loudly alarm called before she had a chance to make a strike.
Around a few more corners we ran into a pride of lions — three adult females and five cubs. They were doing what lions do best – sleep, but we stayed with them for a bit nonetheless. All of a sudden one of the females picked up a distant scent. She raised herself quickly and started to stalk. On cue, the other two females followed, while the cubs took cover in a bush nearby. The hunt was short-lived, as the targeted warthog caught on before the lions really had a chance to give it a proper go.
Over second breakfast in the bush, we discussed the connection between impalas and baboons. As the baboons fed in the canopy of the trees, they would often drop fruit, which the impalas were only to eager to scoop up. They served as alarm systems for each other, providing more security in their partnership than if alone.
On our way back to camp we came across a huge bull elephant. It was feeding on the bark and branches of a tree that it would shake with its forehead periodically. After a few minutes another bull showed up and it was fascinating to watch their interaction. Subtle tail, trunk, and foot movements signaled nervousness and dominance. A third male joined in a few minutes later and all bets were off. The three elepants moved synchronously in a circle, never getting too close to one another. Not wanting to physically engage, the two newcomers left as quickly as they first arrived.
In the afternoon we once again found the two male lions, this time feeding on a small waterbuck calf. They were muddy, full-bellied and rather sleepy, so we moved on. We found the leopard threesome once again, but they were not in any mood to get up from their sleepy perches. So we continued on and found another female leopard, who came down from her resting tree and moved like a ghost through the ever darkening landscape. We parked the car after sunset and listened to roaring lions as we enjoyed our “after dusk” sundowners.
Day 4: Two of our guests went on a guided morning safari walk, where they saw warthogs, antelope, and elephants. For one of the elephants, they had to make a big circle around it, to stay downwind and experience it in a safe manner. The rest of us found the two male lions, who we had seen at the carcass the night before, walking in the valley floor. We positioned the vehicle in a way that allowed for eye level views of them. Everyone took a turn in the front of the vehicle, which created a very intimate and vulnerable feeling, as there is no door on the car. At one point, one of the male lions walked right by us. They both went to drink water before continuing on their territorial walk. At one point we had one of the males walking right at us and roaring, with his brother walking behind him. It was such an impressive sight and sound.
We finished the morning off with two male elephants which were chewing on extremely thick branches for over an hour. We watched them from the ground, and they were close enough for us to hear their bellies rumbling, and even their farts. When they left, one of them left the branch he had been chewing. A quarter of what he started with was left. We picked it up and were shocked by its weight, it easily must have weighed 20-30 lbs. In the evening, we tried to find the wild dogs, making our way east. We searched hard and wide, but could not find them. At sunset, we focused our attention on buffalo in the beautiful evening light, in the winterthorn acacia forest. After that we spent a significant time with a large herd of elephants chewing on the branches of a fallen tree. There was a tiny baby that came in with the mother. It was adorable. At one point a distant elephant trumpeted and it riled up the calf. It flared its ears and stared at the sound (which was behind us). It was probably the cutest moment of the trip. We had sundowners after the sun had set. One of our guests went to use the bush-toilet. As he came back to the vehicle, an elephant walked right out form where he went to the bathroom without him noticing.
Day 5: It was an overcast morning and the animals were not active, at all. We drove around a ton, with very little action. As the morning progressed we found a nice floodplain to take a coffee break at. Three male elephants ended up coming our way, which we observed from the ground, before they waded across the lower Zambezi river. After that, we found a large elephant carcass, which had been completely eaten. A big herd of buffalo made their way down to the water nearby. It was awesome watching them push up the dust as they barreled down the hillside.
From there we practiced birds in flight, as a pied kingfisher was hovering nearby, searching for food in the shallow water below. As we left, our guide Richard somehow spotted a Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl in the trees above. It’s always amazing how good these guys are at spotting hidden animals. The quiet morning turned into a rather productive outing!
In the evening, we went for a boat ride, with the primary goal of reaching the Southern Carmine Bee-eater colony. As we made our way up the river, we came across plenty of crocodiles, a couple of which were huge. A terrapin was basking on a washed up log, and a common sandpiper was foraging along the river’s shores. We made our way passed some hippos before reaching the bird colony. Seeing these bright red birds is always a highlight, as they catch insects on the wing, and bring them back to their riverbank nests, buried six feet deep into the soft sand. A couple of times, some bee-eaters had a disagreements and fought feverishly in mid-air. We spent about an hour with the birds, and it was an incredible time.
We moved further up river and had a nice elephant encounter, as a lone bull was foraging along the river’s edge. To get some different perspectives, we photographed him mostly backlight, and enjoyed watching him browse on a lone tree, and dip his trunk into the shallow water. As we started making our way back to camp after sunset, all happy having had a wonderful time, when we were tremendously surprised by the camp staff, who had set up chairs and a mini bar on a sand bank in the middle of the river. We all enjoyed feeling the wet sand between our toes, somehow connecting us closer to this land. The sky turned from yellow to pink, with the sun long gone, but still providing beautiful colors. Homemade chips and delicious biltong filled our bellies, before we returned to camp happy to fall into bed.
(while watching the bee-eaters, we also saw a puff-adder basking along the river’s edge. Two pied wagtails came in and mobbed it, making it hide in crevices — also super cool to see!)
Day 6: First thing in the morning we watched a sub-adult hyena chow down on a kill it had stoled from a leopard. We then found the same female leopard from the day before, sunning on a termite mound. From there it was time to go to the airstrip. We looked for the dogs along the way, as we had heard reports they had been seen, but were unsuccessful.
After our 2.5 hour bush flight we landed on the dirt airstrip of Musekese, in Kafue National Park. Upon our arrival we were greeted by our guide John Deere, yes, like the tractor. We took a leisurely boat ride down the Kafue river, to camp, stopping for an elephant family feeding in its waters. Upon arriving at camp, we were welcomed by vervet monkey mother’s and their babies. We settled in and got ready for our afternoon drive.
We quickly found a beautiful male leopard, already quite independent from mom, as he emerged from the bush and walked right passed our car, on his way to drink at the river’s edge. As he was walking back towards cover, his mom suddenly emerged. They greeted and then disappeared. We waited for a bit, when mom suddenly emerged again, this time carrying a baby impala (one of the first of the season). Within a few seconds she carried it up a tree, where she and the male fed on it more (though separately).
On the dark drive back to camp, we found a white-tailed mongoose and square-tailed nightjar on the road.
Day 7: The morning was a bit more quiet, but we got to see a hippo use its “hippo highway”, checked out a civit latrine, where civets use the bathroom routin (called a civitrine), and saw some hartebeests, an antelope that can often be difficult to see up close.
One of the highlights of the morning was the discussion during our bush breakfast spot, where we learned about many facets of the sausage tree: burning of its bark can be used as an ointment for tstes bites. Their fruits are eaten by hippos and bushbuck, their flowers are eaten by impala. In the local believes, the sausage fruit, when mixed with torch wood can be used as an elixir to increase penis size.
In the afternoon we found some unique antelope (Kafue is home to more antelope species than any other park in Africa), including two pairs of common duiker, and at night a Sharpe’s grysbok. Another rare sight was two bushpigs in the afternoon. We also found KLI-967, a collared female lion resting near on old zebra carcass. She didn’t just look full, she also looked pregnant, ready to give birth any day. We rounded out the day with a Angolan genet seen at night and a female leopard who quickly disappeared into the darkness.
Day 8: Right at first light we found the resident male lion coalition, two brothers about five years old. They were basking in the morning sun, soaking up the warm rays. We waited until they moved, which was only a few meters into the shade. It was amazing nonetheless to see their strength and power. We found some vultures in the trees, and hoped there was a kill around, but found that not to be the case. A hippo chomping on grasses halfway in the river provided a ton of amusement until we found a young sub-adult male lion, son to the female we saw the day before hiding in the shade of the solar panels of camp!
During lunch we were given a presentation about Musekese Conservation, a very important NGO working on protecting Kafue National Park and its surrounding buffer areas. It also allows for our guests to understand the larger picture, its sadly not always just rainbows and butterflies.
In the afternoon we went on a river boat ride, to see what we could see from the water. We had some nice views of pied kingfishers, photographed the very rare African finfoot, and enjoyed the hippos lounging in the water. On the way back to camp, John Deere, spotted a brown greater galago which was cool!
Day 9: This started out as our slowest morning, we saw some birds, a crocodile female near her nest, but then, we heard a ton of alarm calls from vervet monkeys. We raced over to see what they were looking at. We circled around the area a few times, and couldn’t find anything in the direction they were staring. Then, our guest Erin called out “leopard!”. In the crotch of a large ebony tree, a leopard was sleeping, totally careless about the freaked out monkeys. We watched her a long time, admiring her grace and power. She got up a few times, stretched, and laid back down. We left her knowing she would probably remain in the tree for the day, to avoid the midday heat. Later, through the id booklet from musekese, we found out it was MSF5, a nine year old female.
Instead of our normal lunch routine, we were surprised by lunch on the river, where we enjoyed hippos, elephants, and even a sleeping leopard close to the water, all while eating delicious food!
In the afternoon we came across the collared female lion again, but knew we wanted to there when the leopard climbed out of the tree. She made us wait a bit, but she jumped down more than 10 feet with extreme grace. Then she started to bit at the flies that were bothering her. It was adorable. As she moved across the plain, it became very obvious she too was pregnant. We loved every second we got to spend with her and were excited about all the future offspring of the predators in the area. We already can’t wait until the 2025 tour!
Day 10: We drove from Musekese camp back to Lusaka, spotting a few more impalas and pukus before hitting the tarmac and getting a small glimpse of life in Zambia along the road back to the capital.
Classic Safari in Zambia Photo Tour 2024 Species List
Mammals
| African Elephant | Loxodonta africana |
| Brown Greater Galago | Otolemur crassicaudatus |
| Vervet Monkey | Cercopithecus pygerythrus |
| Yellow Baboon | Papio cynocephalus |
| Chacma Baboon | Papio ursinus |
| Cape Porcupine | Hystrix africaeaustralis |
| Lion | Panthera leo |
| Leopard | Panthera pardus |
| African Civet | Civettictis civetta |
| Common Genet | Genetta genetta |
| Angolan Genet | Genetta angolensis |
| Common Dwarf Mongoose | Helogale parvula |
| White-tailed Mongoose | Ichneumia albicauda |
| Banded Mongoose | Mungos mungo |
| Spotted Hyena | Crocuta crocuta |
| Side-striped Jackal | Lupulella adusta |
| African Wild Dog | Lycaon pictus |
| Plains Zebra | Equus quagga |
| Common Warthog | Phacochoerus africanus |
| Bushpig | Potamochoerus larvatus |
| Hippopotamus | Hippopotamus amphibius |
| Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest | Alcelaphus lichtensteinii |
| Sharpe’s Grysbok | Raphicerus sharpei |
| Cape Bufallo | Syncerus caffer |
| Common Eland | Tragelaphus oryx |
| Bushbuck | Tragelaphus scriptus |
| Greater Kudu | Tragelaphus strepsiceros |
| Common Duiker | Sylvicapra grimmia |
| Impala | Aepyceros melampus |
| Waterbuck | Kobus ellipsiprymnus |
| Puku | Kobus vardonii |
| Southern Reedbuck | Redunca arundinum |
Birds
| Egyptian Goose | Alopochen aegyptiaca |
| Spur-winged Goose | Plectropterus gambensis |
| Helmeted Guineafowl | Numida meleagris |
| Southern Crested Guineafowl | Guttera edouardi |
| Crested Francolin | Ortygornis sephaena |
| Natal Spurfowl | Pternistis natalensis |
| Swainson’s Spurfowl | Pternistis swainsonii |
| Red-necked Spurfowl | Pternistis afer |
| Ring-necked Dove | Streptopelia capicola |
| Emerald-spotted Wood-Dove | Turtur chalcospilos |
| African Green-Pigeon | Treron calvus |
| Black-bellied Bustard | Lissotis melanogaster |
| Gray Go-away-bird | Crinifer concolor |
| Schalow’s Turaco | Tauraco schalowi |
| Senegal Coucal | Centropus senegalensis |
| Klaas’s Cuckoo | Chrysococcyx klaas |
| Fiery-necked Nightjar | Caprimulgus pectoralis |
| Square-tailed Nightjar | Caprimulgus fossii |
| Black Crake | Zapornia flavirostra |
| African Finfoot | Podica senegalensis |
| Gray Crowned-Crane | Balearica regulorum |
| Water Thick-knee | Burhinus vermiculatus |
| Black-winged Stilt | Himantopus himantopus |
| Long-toed Lapwing | Vanellus crassirostris |
| Blacksmith Lapwing | Vanellus armatus |
| White-crowned Lapwing | Vanellus albiceps |
| Wattled Lapwing | Vanellus senegallus |
| African Jacana | Actophilornis africanus |
| Common Sandpiper | Actitis hypoleucos |
| Wood Sandpiper | Tringa glareola |
| Common Greenshank | Tringa nebularia |
| Collared Pratincole | Glareola pratincola |
| African Openbill | Anastomus lamelligerus |
| Saddle-billed Stork | Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis |
| Marabou Stork | Leptoptilos crumenifer |
| Yellow-billed Stork | Mycteria ibis |
| African Darter | Anhinga rufa |
| Reed Cormorant | Microcarbo africanus |
| Glossy Ibis | Plegadis falcinellus |
| African Sacred Ibis | Threskiornis aethiopicus |
| Hadada Ibis | Bostrychia hagedash |
| Striated Heron | Butorides striata |
| Squacco Heron | Ardeola ralloides |
| Western Cattle-Egret | Ardea ibis |
| Great Egret | Ardea alba |
| Yellow-billed Egret | Ardea brachyrhyncha |
| Gray Heron | Ardea cinerea |
| Black-headed Heron | Ardea melanocephala |
| Goliath Heron | Ardea goliath |
| Hamerkop | Scopus umbretta |
| Pink-backed Pelican | Pelecanus rufescens |
| Osprey | Pandion haliaetus |
| African Harrier-Hawk | Polyboroides typus |
| White-headed Vulture | Trigonoceps occipitalis |
| Lappet-faced Vulture | Torgos tracheliotos |
| Hooded Vulture | Necrosyrtes monachus |
| White-backed Vulture | Gyps africanus |
| Bateleur | Terathopius ecaudatus |
| Western Banded Snake-Eagle | Circaetus cinerascens |
| Brown Snake-Eagle | Circaetus cinereus |
| African Hawk-Eagle | Aquila spilogaster |
| African Goshawk | Aerospiza tachiro |
| African Fish-Eagle | Icthyophaga vocifer |
| Green Woodhoopoe | Phoeniculus purpureus |
| Southern Ground-Hornbill | Bucorvus leadbeateri |
| African Gray Hornbill | Lophoceros nasutus |
| Trumpeter Hornbill | Bycanistes bucinator |
| White-fronted Bee-eater | Merops bullockoides |
| Little Bee-eater | Merops pusillus |
| European Bee-eater | Merops apiaster |
| Southern Carmine Bee-eater | Merops nubicoides |
| Half-collared Kingfisher | Alcedo semitorquata |
| Brown-hooded Kingfisher | Halcyon albiventris |
| Striped Kingfisher | Halcyon chelicuti |
| Giant Kingfisher | Megaceryle maxima |
| Pied Kingfisher | Ceryle rudis |
| Lilac-breasted Roller | Coracias caudatus |
| Broad-billed Roller | Eurystomus glaucurus |
| Black-collared Barbet | Lybius torquatus |
| Bearded Woodpecker | Chloropicus namaquus |
| Cardinal Woodpecker | Dendropicos fuscescens |
| Golden-tailed Woodpecker | Campethera abingoni |
| Lilian’s Lovebird | Agapornis lilianae |
| Brown-necked Parrot | Poicephalus fuscicollis |
| Meyer’s Parrot | Poicephalus meyeri |
| White-crested Helmetshrike | Prionops plumatus |
| Black-backed Puffback | Dryoscopus cubla |
| Fork-tailed Drongo | Dicrurus adsimilis |
| African Paradise-Flycatcher | Terpsiphone viridis |
| Southern Black-Tit | Melaniparus niger |
| Croaking Cisticola | Cisticola natalensis |
| Wire-tailed Swallow | Hirundo smithii |
| Yellow-bellied Greenbul | Chlorocichla flaviventris |
| Common Bulbul | Pycnonotus barbatus |
| Arrow-marked Babbler | Turdoides jardineii |
| Red-billed Oxpecker | Buphagus erythroryncha |
| Wattled Starling | Creatophora cinerea |
| Common Myna | Acridotheres tristis |
| Violet-backed Starling | Cinnyricinclus leucogaster |
| Meves’s Starling | Lamprotornis mevesii |
| Kurrichane Thrush | Turdus libonyana |
| White-browed Robin-Chat | Cossypha heuglini |
| African Stonechat | Saxicola torquatus |
| Arnot’s Chat | Myrmecocichla arnotti |
| White-browed Sparrow-Weaver | Plocepasser mahali |
| Red-headed Weaver | Anaplectes rubriceps |
| Spectacled Weaver | Ploceus ocularis |
| Lesser Masked-Weaver | Ploceus intermedius |
| Yellow-mantled Widowbird | Euplectes macroura |
| Southern Cordonbleu | Uraeginthus angolensis |
