Photos: On safari in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Bilila Lodge Kempinski allows visitors to “just sit on your balcony and soak up the excitement” of seeing wildlife, a hotel chain executive says. Bilila, which opened a year ago, takes advantage of animal migratory patterns in Serengeti park.  (Rosemary McClure / For The Times)

A lion dozes after filling up on a kill in Tanzania’s Serengeti park. Large cats rarely go hungry in the park, which has huge herds of wildebeests, gazelles and zebras.  (Rosemary McClure / For The Times)

A giraffe strolls in Serengeti park, of which Rosemary McClure writes in the Los Angeles Times: “I’d come to the Serengeti to see wild animals. And I did from the moment I arrived. Within 20 minutes, I’d spotted a herd of zebras, two giraffes, a family of warthogs, a pride of lions sleeping in the sun” and other wildlife.  (Rosemary McClure / For The Times)

Hippos loll in a pool in Serengeti park. Writes Rosemary McClure in The Times after touring the park: “At one stop, I watched more than 100 hippos lolling in a muddy pool, grunting and swishing dirty water over themselves.”  (Rosemary McClure / For The Times)

The striped animals know the Serengeti well: About 200,000 “surge south from the northern hills to the southern plains during short seasonal rains in the fall, then swirl west and north after longer rains in late spring,” Rosemary McClure reports in The Times.  (Rosemary McClure / For The Times)

Vehicles stop along a Serengeti route, as often happens when animals come into view. One of them might be your neighbor; Los Angeles provides 30% or more of the leisure travelers who visit Africa, says Ron Mracky of the Africa Travel Assn.  (Rosemary McClure / For The Times)