The term ‘Big Five’ was coined by big game hunters in the colonial era to describe the five most dangerous animals to hunt on foot: lion, leopard, elephant, African buffalo, and rhinoceros. Today it describes the five species that safari travellers most want to see. Zimbabwe offers all of them — in concentrations that are, in parts, unmatched on the continent.
Zimbabwe’s lion population is estimated at around 1,700 individuals — the sixth largest in Africa. Hwange National Park holds the largest concentration, with multiple prides operating around the park’s pumped waterholes. Lion sightings in Hwange are consistent; in peak season (August–October), it would be unusual to spend three nights in the park without encountering a lion. Mana Pools has a smaller but significant population, notably more visible from camps on the flood plain.
Leopard is the most challenging of the five to see, anywhere in Africa. They are solitary, nocturnal, and extraordinarily good at disappearing into terrain that looks completely open. Matobo Hills is Zimbabwe’s best leopard destination — the highest density of leopard in Africa by some estimates, attributed to the rocky granite koppies that provide the perfect combination of denning sites, ambush cover, and an abundant prey base of rock hyrax and baboon.
Night drives in Matobo with a spotlight significantly increase sighting probability. We have guests who have seen five leopards in a single night game drive in the Matobo Hills.
Zimbabwe holds approximately 100,000 elephants — about a quarter of Africa’s total remaining population. They are almost everywhere in the country’s protected areas. Hwange’s waterhole elephants are the most famous — the breeding herds at Dom Waterhole in August and September are among the great wildlife spectacles of the continent. Mana Pools elephants are famous for standing on their hind legs to reach albida seed pods. Addo-style: learned behaviour, passed between generations.
African buffalo exist in enormous herds in Hwange — groups of several hundred moving across the park between grazing areas and water. They are formidable animals, and a large herd moving through the bush with a plume of egrets feeding on the insects they disturb is one of the defining images of an African wildlife experience.
Rhino is the rarest of the five in Zimbabwe. The country’s white rhino population is recovering after severe poaching losses in the 1990s and 2000s. The best place to see rhino is Matobo Hills — the Intensive Protection Zone within Matobo National Park holds a growing population that can be tracked on foot with rangers. The experience of walking to within 20 metres of a white rhino is one that very few places in Africa can offer legitimately. Matobo does.
For all five, we recommend a combination of Matobo Hills (leopard + rhino), Hwange (lion + elephant + buffalo), and Mana Pools (lion + elephant). 10–12 days covers this circuit comfortably. For those who want to add wild dog, Hwange and Mana Pools are both strongholds for Africa’s most endangered large carnivore.
