TOP 5 TIPS ON HOW TO SPOT WILDLIFE ON SAFARI

I’ve had it mentioned to me on safari trips in various locations and by several guides/rangers that I have a natural talent for spotting wildlife. Some of it is instinctual, some comes down to good eyesight (and luck!) but it also comes down to technique, so I am sharing my top tips so that you can learn how to improve your spotting skills.

Photo Credit: (c) T J Allen Art

1. Find Your Inner Owl

Photo Credit: (c) T J Allen Art

One thing owls are known for is their ability to turn their head 270 degrees in either direction. While you may not have quite such an impressive rotation in your neck, it is still worth bearing this feature in mind. A lot of people on safari look straight ahead out of habit from travelling in vehicles and wanting to see where they are going, or they look to the side but at a stationary angle. When I’m on a safari vehicle, I spend the whole game drive continually scanning back and forth, all the way to the left and then to the right and back again. Honestly, my neck gets an incredible workout! The advantage of this is that I don’t only just see things on one side of the vehicle AND I get the bonus use of my peripheral vision. It’s amazing how something in the corner of your eye can sometimes stand out more than something that is staring you in the face!

2. Hone Your Eagle Eyes

Photo Credit: (c) T J Allen Art

Leading on from the first tip is the importance of honing your vision and this comes in a few different ways. The first is to vary your eyeline and that refers to every plane: from foreground to distance (horizontally) and from ground-level to sky (vertically). If you only focus on one plane, you’re likely to miss every species that features elsewhere, for example, if you are only looking at ground level, you’ll miss seeing birds at the top of trees or flying up high in the distance. The other tip is to realise that your eyes may take a bit of time to adjust to the new environment. Once you’ve got used to the common shapes of trees/bushveld etc. it will be easier to spot what isn’t part of the natural landscape. Knowing where certain animals habituate and what their common movements are is also helpful. For example, in the knowledge that leopards like to lie in trees, it’s useful to scan the types of trees they are most likely to be found in … it’s no good looking at a spindly-branched tree that clearly wouldn’t be of use to a big cat.

3. Unleash Your Inner Child

Photo Credit: (c) T J Allen Art

If you turn it into a game, it’s always more fun! Why sit back and wait for your safari guide to call out what animal they’ve seen when you can try and beat them to it?! You’ll soon be notching up the points (in your own head!) if you take an added interest in being present and partaking in the success of the game drive. There’s always the added extra knowing that more eyes = more chance. If you only rely on one person to spot the animals (bearing in mind your safari guide is also multitasking and driving the vehicle), they are going to miss whatever is on the left when they are looking right. If you have multiple eyes all looking in various directions all at the same time, you’ve got a much higher probability of detecting a sneakily camouflaged animal in the bushes.

4. A.S.T.

Photo Credit: (c) T J Allen Art

What is an A.S.T. I hear you ask? Well, it is a very appropriately named, Animal Shaped Thing! Yes, A.S.T.’s feature heavily on game drives in the form of twigs, branches, rocks, termite mounds, you name it, the natural world has a cheeky way of playing with your eyes sometimes. We all do it though, we all call out, ‘Oooo, what’s that over there’ in great excitement only to find out that it is a figment of our imagination and just a cleverly-shaped inanimate object. Don’t be embarrassed. It’s always better to shout out and check in case it really is something worth stopping and looking at. My best advice when you’re not sure, is to keep looking at it and judge if it continues to look exactly the same. If it doesn’t move within 30 seconds, it is highly unlikely to be living and breathing!

​P.S. Are those things rocks or hippos in my photograph?! What else can you see?

5. The Last Resort

Photo Credit: (c) Tony McKeith

Well, after all of the above tips and tricks that I’ve got up my sleeve for you to learn from, if it’s still something you can’t get the hang of, you can always hire me and take me on safari with you! haha