Hello! Readers and travellers, our last blog was on Tanzania A-Z, B for Buffalo or “African cafe buffalo”. Here we are back with another interesting topic with the alphabet “C”.you may have heard “C for cat” in your childhood, right? But this time we will know some information about the“African wild Cats”
You have seen the wild cats such as lion, leopard, cheetah in Zoo or other places but did not have seen when a lion or a leopard is in action at the time of hunting or tree climbing lions.
Wild animals of this category are carnivores. With full of energy, they are very dangerous and furious also known as the Ruler of the jungle. In the hunting time, size doesn’t matter to them. At the same time, they are also socialist in their lifestyle.
During Tanzania Safari, you are going to see them with their family, also in action. It is very dangerous to go near to these big cats at the time of action because of their mixed nature of aggressiveness and speed.
Before watching them in Tanzania, let’s know some facts about them in brief:
African Big Cats
If you have desire to see African wild life, then you should come to enjoy Tanzania safaris. Because Tanzania is home to African big cats such as Lion, Leopard and Cheetah.
Among the Tanzania destinations, Lake Manyara National Park is famous for the tree climbing lions and Serengeti National Park is famous for highest lion population among others. The popularity of Tanzania safari is due to highest lion population of Tanzania in the world.
During Your Tanzania safaris, you can see the leopard, one of the African big cats famous for agility and solitary.Serengeti National Park is one of the Tanzania destinations famous for leopard.
Well Famous for its speed, cheetah mostly found in Sub-Saharan Africa. Cheetah can be found in The Masai Mara, Phinda Private Game Reserve, and The Serengeti.
Lion
Panthera Leo( scientific name) or lion is one of the major attractions for the tourists from worldwide during Tanzania safaris, Which is also the biggest amongst African wild cats. Serengeti National Park is also famous as the best Tanzania destination for highest lion population.
With a life span of 10-14 years, lion is more social than other wild life cats. Lionslive in the pride (group) consists of up to 25 members including few adult males, mostly female lions and rest are cubs.
Length of male lion is 1.7m to 2.5m, where as length is 1.4m to 1.8m, in case of female. Heights are 1.2m and 1.1m for male and female respectively. Weight of male lion and female lion are 190kg and 130kg respectively.
Most interesting fact is female lion do most of the hunting while male lion watch the territory and protect the pride.
Leopard
Panthera pardus or leopard is another attraction of African Wild life. Kruger National Park in South Africa is famous for this species.
Serengeti National Park, Tarangire National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area are Tanzania destinations that one should visit during Tanzania safaris to watch leopard activities directly.
With life span of 12-17 years, their length varies from 1.6m to 2.3m and height varies from 2-2.5 feet. Weight varies from 17kg to 65kg.
Leopards are very elusive and famous for agility. With maximum running speed of 58km/h, they can leap 6m horizontally and 3m vertically.
As leopard is adaptable to all kind of environment, they can live any type of habitat like deserts and semi-desert regions, woodlands, savannah grasslands, mountains, rainforests.
Cheetah
Acinonyxjubatus or Cheetah is famous as a fastest mammal which is 121 kilometres per hour with an average speed 60 miles per hour. During Tanzania safaris, you can watch them as their population is high in Eastern and southern Africa. Not only among the African wild cats, is cheetah the fastest among all the land mammals exist on the earth.
Serengeti National park is the best Tanzania destination for the tourists interested in cheetah.
With life span of 10-14 years, their length varies from 1m to 1.5m with height 76 cm. Their weight varies from 20kg to 72kg.
Cheetahs are usually like to live in the group. They looks very attractive like covering their body with a pale yellow coat with black dots.
Most of us get confuse to differentiate Leopard and Cheetah, but if you watch carefully, you can see the black spot on the body of cheetah is much rounder shape than leopard and black mark looks like tear from eye’s corner .
Some Rare small cats to see in Tanzania
Apart from these big cats, there are also some rarely seen small cats in Tanzania that you should know about. We are going to give you some information about them.
Serval
Leptailurus Serval or Serval is a medium-sized cat that comes under African Wild life. Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Crater are the Tanzania destinations for Serval.
With life span up to 23 years, their head and body length varies from 67cm and 100cm and weight varies from 9kg to 18kg.
Serval cats have longer legs relative to their body size comparative to other cats. Also have long neck, some named them as “giraffe cat”. They can jump up to 12feet.
Also they have largest ear. Their primary diets are insects, reptiles and rodents and they are habitat of Savannas.
Caracal
Caracal isa medium size cat that you can see during your Tanzania safaris. The Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater and The Mwiba Ranch are the best Tanzania destinations for caracal cat.
With life span of 12-18 years, length of adult caracal is 74 cm and mass is 12 kg.
They have the capability to knock-down 10-12 birds at one time. Sensitive to movement and sound makes them unique.
Caracal eats small animals, rabbits, reptiles, rodents, large insects.
Black-Footed Cat
Felis Nigripes or Black-footed cat is the second smallest cat in the world. As they are smallest and secretive in nature, they are difficult to find. But their population is high in Kruger National Park of South Africa. The back footed cat is also the smallest amongst all the African wild cats.
With life span of 10 years, length of male is in between 36.7 to 52 cm, where length of female is between 35.3 to 41.5 cm. Weight varies in between 1 kg to 2.45 kg.
In South Africa, it is known as “miershooptier”,also as “small-spotted cats”.
They can live in the habitat of Savannah, Grassland and Desert.
Small animals, reptiles, amphibians, etc. are diets of this species.
African golden cat
Caracal aurata or African golden cat is a least known wild cat family. For the last time, it was found in Minziro Nature Reserve.
With life span up to 12 years, their length varies 62 cm to 94 cm and height is approx 50 cm. Weight varies between 6 kg to 14 kg.
As the upper part or coat changes from reddish to grey, this species get the name as African golden cat. They have reddish, brown or grey fur.
African golden cats are also known as “leopard’s brother” because these two species have same habitat. It is also a carnivore.
We hope that this information will help you to know some facts about them and also help you to explore them. If you are interested to know more about them, then Tanzania is the best place for you to meet these species. Tanzania Natural Parks with big landscape are the best destinations to meet them.
During Tanzania Safari, Let your photography skills keep your experience memorable.
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