There are plenty of animal checklists you can access when visiting South Africa (and particularly Kruger), however so far I have yet to see any that make it into a PROPER game! Now you can compete with family and friends to see who can score the most points with their superior spotting ability. I developed this safari animal bingo checklist for my family and friends who came over to South Africa for my wedding, but I thought it would be useful to others as well.
We have assigned points to each animal and bird according to how common and rare each is (in our opinion and experience). You are welcome to change the points for each if you disagree! The Pangolin has scored the most points at 1,000 points – so if someone sees this they pretty much win the game! Don’t forget to check out some of the best roads in Kruger to find animals and don’t forget to get your Big 5 Safari Stickers so you can show off your sightings while you are there!
You can also choose to allocate a prize to the winners, whether it be a six-pack of their favourite alcoholic beverage, or a Kruger book, or a night off the washing up. Or have no prizes and just do it for the fun of it.
If it’s just the one car, you can use the checklist to compete against yourself – see how many points you get this visit and compare to your next (and so on and so forth). THERE’S SO MANY WAYS YOU CAN USE THE LIST IT’S DOWNRIGHT CRAZY. Download the South Africa Safari Animal Bingo Checklist (PDF) here.
Whether you choose to use the points system or just use this as a nice checklist, the OPTIONS ARE ENDLESS AND TOTALLY UP TO YOU. It’s designed mostly for use in the Greater Kruger area (Kruger park and surrounding game reserves), so if you are game viewing in other areas, you may need to tailor it a little more to suit the different bird and animal life.
Enjoy your safari, and please post below after your trip to let us know what score you got!
Fantastic Blog. Very much enjoyed reading.
Awesome Blog. Really enjoyed reading.
Very cool. I checked out the bingo list. It doesn’t look like a traditional bingo setup, but I like the point system all the same. Maybe more. I’ll definitely have to remember this next time I go on safari. Thanks!