All the animals are thirsty after an adventurous day in the savannah, so they've all trekked to the drinking grounds. Each animal wants to be the first to drink, but watch out! The elephant will scare the rhino, the rhino scares the ostrich, and the ostrich scares the zebra. Anything can happen... The mice could even scare the elephant! The player who scares away the most animals wins the game.

To set up Kariba, shuffle the cards and deal five cards to each player, placing the remainder face down as a deck. Put the game board in the center of the table.

During a round, a player lays down one or more cards of the same animal, putting the cards in the corresponding position (1-9) around the lake. If at least 3 cards of the same animal are put in front of the lake, then these animals scare weaker animal(s) (closest lower number) while they are drinking. The player picks all the cards from the weaker animal off the board and places them face down in front of her/him. Each card is worth 1 point, and whoever has the most points wins the game.