Is there an alternative to the Big 5?
I have been fortunate enough to have travelled in Africa several times over the years and each time I've been incredibly lucky to experience a huge range of birds, animals and beautiful environments. And of course this includes great sightings of the 'Big 5'.
Historically the Big 5 was a term used by hunters to describe the five most dangerous animals in Africa (obviously this was coined well before scientists in the West fully understood how diseases carried by the humble mosquito could be so deadly). Thankfully most private and national game reserves in Southern Africa have banned all forms of gratuitous hunting, even so, the Big 5 remains a 'must-see' African experience for most visitors to the African continent. And in case you didn't know, the Big 5 are: leopard, lion, cape buffalo, rhino and elephant, and of course, most safari-goers put this impressive group at the top of their 'must see' list in their natural environment.
Above left: Two rhinos hammering each other in a territorial dispute and above right, red-billed tick birds feeding on the back of a rhino.
As mentioned, I've been incredibly fortunate to have experienced several safaris and even though I might have seen a lot of wildlife, including perhaps hundreds of elephants on my various trips, I never get bored with seeing more. Same goes for the four other Big 5 members.
But wait a minute, what's missing from that list?
I think the hippopotamus should be in the big five (now 6). They are certainly big, they are the third largest animal in the world - males can weigh up to 1.5 tonnes and when pushed can run on land at up to 30kph - faster than the average human so care has to be taken around these huge water loving monsters. I read that hippos, although they look fat, are actually not. Their skin is up to 6 cms thick, providing protection for a life spent mostly in water.
Hippos often look pink, especially around their underparts and their eyes - this is caused by the excretion of clear liquid that has two functions: firstly as an anti-bacterial agent to help mitigate some of the issues created by being immersed in water for so long. The second action is to provide a form of sun protection.
Another interesting fact is that hippos 'muck spread', whirling their tails when pooping. This flicks manure several metres from the hippo. It does this in water and on land. Experts are not sure why they do this as they normally don't mark territory on land. Just make sure that you are not standing too close to the back end of a hippo when this happens!
While giraffes are not nearly as dangerous as the Big 5, they have been known to attack humans if they feel threatened. As most wild animals would. They are certainly the tallest living animal, standing up to 5.7metres high and, despite their apparent ungainliness, a large giraffe might weigh over a tonne and can run surprisingly fast - up to 60kph. But for me, one of the most interesting things about these amazing creatures is that, despite their size, when feeding in their favourite acacia forests they can be almost invisible.
Another interesting fact about giraffes is that they have developed a way to slow the rush of blood to the brain when they stoop to drink. If this didn't happen they'd faint and fall victim to whatever predator was waiting nearby. It's a very clever biological adaptation to a problem created by its unusual height
And don't forget zebras, those curious donkey-like mammals that roam the African bushveld, often seen mingling with groups of wildebeest. To humans zebra are harmless - unless you are foolish enough to leave the safety of your safari vehicle. Even then zebra are more likely to just run away. But they do have a reputation for kicking and biting other zebra and of course, any predator trying to turn them into a snack. Interestingly I have seen quite a few zebras without tails - inevitably these have been bitten off by other zebras during territorial or social disputes. One interesting fact about the zebra: when born, baby zebra have unusually long legs. This is a protection mechanism - predators normally target young animals in a herd but with zebras, the young are very hard to distinguish because their bodies are roughly on the same level as the adults.
Zebra are also interesting in that they have quite a simple digestive system compared to ruminants with two stomachs. While they can easily subsist on a diet of grasses and sedges, their digestive system does generate a lot of gas. This is one reason why zebras often look fat or bloated and when they are frightened and run off it's sometimes accompanied by a gaseous discharge.
The collective noun for zebras is of course a dazzle, and this aptly describes the effect its markings have when a herd panics and runs for safety. With rapid movement the stripes create a confusion of shapes supposedly making it harder for a predator, such as a lion, to 'lock on' to one individual animal, thus making it that much harder for a successful hunt. I'm not sure if this is a proven animal fact, but it's quite a plausible theory. Other theories hold that the stripes have a thermo regulation effect while others speculate that the stripes deter blood sucking insects. Check Wikipedia, there are many more theories.
On safari I feel some guides spend a bit too much time and energy looking for Big 5 animals when there's clearly so much more to see and experience. The Big 5 is just the top of a very tall and very wide biodiversity pyramid.
The Big 5 marketing campaign was a huge marketing success in South Africa, and spurred on by nature conservationists, it came up with another marketing brainwave: the Little 5. This offers visitors the chance to experience something quite different to the Big 5.
The Little 5 features the elephant shrew, ant lion, rhinoceros beetle, buffalo weaver and the leopard tortoise. On our recent trip we did sight the buffalo weaver, and I have seen leopard tortoises on a previous trip, but never seen the other three Little 5 creatures. Perhaps next time?
Then I got thinking that guides could perhaps broaden their animal repertoire by including other wildlife categories - something along the lines of the 'Beautiful 5' for example. These could then be added to their list of animals and birds shared with visitors. And how about the 'Fastest 5', and the 'Sneakiest 5' or the Unappreciated 5? I think there's a great deal of potential here. But I guess if you are only visiting a game park for a few days, having the time to find everything would be a bit tight.
Here are a few of my suggestions that might go a long way in filling the gap between the Big 5 and the (very) Little 5.
Beautiful 5
Let's face it, three of the Big 5 are not very colourful - they are mostly dark grey, wrinkly and often grumpy - while lions often look as though they have had a very tough life (which invariably they have). The leopard is the odd one out here - leopards inevitably look beautiful, no matter how seasoned they might be.
But what about all the other fabulously beautiful animals and birds that can be so easily missed in the rush to tick off the Big 5?
Show someone a Lilac-breasted Roller and you'll immediately get their attention. Quite common across the whole of Southern Africa, the Roller is a superbly colourful bird often seen perched on a vantage point - usually on top of a dead tree or bush - and when they fly, you'll see a veritable explosion of colour. Not surprisingly this is the National Bird of Kenya and in my opinion, a strong candidate for the Beautiful 5!
One interesting theory I heard about the Roller was that the bird's colouring has evolved to mimic a flower, which would then attract insects. Sitting in a bare tree, as they do, makes the Roller's colouring more noticeable, while the dead tree's lack of foliage makes it easier to grab whatever insect is lured into range.
Another candidate for the Beautiful 5 might be the Greater Kudu, Africa's third largest antelope. Its vertically striped markings make for perfect camouflage once sheltering in the light bushland that they favour. And if the kudu doesn't move, you'd probably never know that it was there - it's camouflage is that good. You can judge the age of male kudu by the number of twists in its horns. Two full twists indicate a fully grown male - about three years old - this one is possibly only two years old. And checkout those ears - huge listening devices perfectly evolved to pick up even the slightest signs of danger.
Another suggestion for the Beautiful 5 is the Blue Crane, a majestic bird found across most of Southern and Eastern Africa. Blue Cranes normally inhabit grassy uplands as well as lakes and wetlands in the breeding season. We saw them in a small game park near Stellenbosch, just an hour's drive out of Cape Town.
Villiera Wines, a large winery business employing more than 500 staff, retails its products all over the world (including to Woolworths in South Africa and Marks and Spencers in the UK). It also runs a small game park - you can go on a two-hour game drive followed by a wine tasting session! Some years ago management at Villiera repurposed a good chunk of its older acreage, plus land from two neighbouring properties, as wildlife habitat. It was restocked with a good range of plains animals (i.e. the non-bitey sort). Among the Wildebeest, Impala, Kudu, Eland, Gemsbock, Springbok, Bontebok, and Mongooses were these wonderful Blue Cranes. It was a great afternoon out and well worth the A$30 entry - oh, and the wines are pretty good too.
Though the Black-hooded Oriole is a pretty common bird in Southern Africa and in tropical South East Asia, it rarely gets a mention on safari drives - despite its bold colour. This bird was actually snapped around the lodge area in Sabie Sand - it was hard to miss.
The advantage of photographing the Big 5 is that they are mostly big and quite static. You usually have time to get the camera into action, focus, compose and get the shot. The obvious problem encountered when photographing birds is that they have a habit of hiding behind whatever tree or bush it is that they are using for cover.
Worse still they can just fly off. So getting good bird images requires a bit of preplanning - having your camera switched on and at the ready is a really good start - plus you might also have to exercise a great deal of patience because some birds fly off, but then some have a habit of returning to the same location and even the same branch (kingfishers and Lilac-breasted Rollers in particular do this).
It's actually very hard to pick candidates for the Beautiful 5 as there are so many wonderful animals and birds to choose from.
One of my all-time favourites would have to be the Bee Eater family. My all-time favourite would have to be the Carmine Bee Eater. We did spot these along the Chobe River on this trip but my results weren't too good - shooting into the sun, so I'm going for another Bee Eater, the Little Bee Eater.
Fastest 5
Aside for the wonderful leopard, I love watching the Cheetah. It's a truly beautiful cat to see in the wild and is perfectly adapted for a life hunting in the grasslands of Southern and Eastern Africa. It's also the fastest animal on the planet, capable of reaching speeds up to 110kph (faster than most of the cars I have owned). On our recent trip we did witness a two-year old female cheetah hunt and bring down a small Impala. The chase was over in seconds. Like most apex predators, cheetahs have to be pretty sure of catching their prey on their first attempt, otherwise it could be a long wait for the next opportunity.
But this hunt was a success and by the time this cheetah had caught and subdued the impala she was panting heavily. It was at least 15 minutes before she appeared to have got her breath back - all the while looking nervously around to make sure that another opportunistic predator like a lion, hyena or wild dog was not creeping up to steal her hard won meal.
The African Wild Dog is one of the continent's rarest mammals - it's on the endangered list so seeing one is a rare privilege in my book. In fact, at Sabi Sand in the Greater Kruger area we saw several adults and ten pups playing around their den. That was quite a sight (and smell, boy, do they smell!).
Wild dogs are very social animals and are highly organised hunters. Like many African antelope, they can also run at speeds of up to 60kph - but what most antelope cannot do is maintain that speed for more than a few minutes - wild dogs can run for up to an hour, more than enough to exhaust their prey, thus making it easier to complete a kill.
Other speedy candidates for this '5' might include:
Tsessebe (90kph)
Springbok (88kph)
Blue Wildebeest (80.5kph)
Sneakiest 5
Now the sneakiest 5 can include a wide range of creatures - the Leopard is considered to be 'elusive' and hard to find. As the leopard is mostly nocturnal, seeing one in the wild is quite hard. This cat is secretive and very cunning. Several camps I have visited promote themselves as being 'the' places to see leopard and true to form, they were.
Rangers from lodges all over the area frequented by leopards keep track of sightings so they often have a good general idea of where they might be. Sometimes they even leave the game vehicle with a tracker and a rifle to search for leopard activity (leaving a slightly nervous group of tourists to fend for themselves). And if there's been a recent kill, the leopard usually stashes its prey up a tree - which can make it easier to spot. The main reason for the tree-stashing is to protect the kill from lions, hyenas and other predators who could potentially steal it. If the carcass has been seen, the big cat is usually somewhere close keeping an eye on its food. Often you find them sleeping off a night's hunting somewhere deep in the bush.
Another dead set volunteer for sneakiness would have to be the Nile Crocodile. These amphibious reptiles can be found throughout most of Africa, inhabiting freshwater lakes, rivers and marshes. Although not as large as the Australian Saltwater Crocodile (which can grow to six metres in length), Nile Crocodiles, though only averaging around three metres in length, are considered to be very aggressive, accounting for more than 300 human deaths every year. Nile crocodiles basically eat any bird, human or animal that comes within striking range. Their hunting technique involves waiting in a part or fully submerged position for prey to wander into range before striking very quickly, clamping the prey in its jaws and pulling it back into the water to drown it. Crocs have been known to wait for days for the right opportunity to arise.
Another candidate for the 'sneakiest 5' might well be an owl. There are dozens of owl species across Africa. This one is Verreaux's Eagle Owl - you can tell because it's the only owl in the world with pink eyelids! It's also the largest owl in Africa, measuring up to 25 inches in height. It was spotted perched in the dense foliage of a large tree - it was actually a really rare sighting - spotted by one of the tourists in our Land Cruiser. Owls typically have incredibly accurate low light stereoscopic vision and highly developed audio senses. An owl can actually adjust the angle of its facial feathers to channel sounds more accurately into its ears. To add to its stealth capabilities its wing feathers are adapted for (almost) silent flight. Owls are generally 'armed' with a powerful beak and exceptionally sharp claws. Suffice to say, most of the owl's prey wouldn't hear a thing till it was too late. That's super sneaky!
Black-backed Jackals - 'sneaky' because they will try to steal food from lion kills (a very dangerous behaviour), and they are happy to supplement their diets with dead animals and will even eat fruit and termites if their other food sources are not available, something that the larger predators like lions, would never do. Jackals have ultimately carved out a strong niche for themselves throughout Africa mostly because of their adaptability, something that many other animals have failed to achieve.
Jackals are very smart and will often spend a lot of time assessing the strengths of potential prey - looking for weaknesses, so as to make their hunt easier. Jackals can run at speeds up to 60kph over great distances making them very efficient hunters. Above right: Jackals are often seen skulking away from humans, seeking cover among long grasses and shrubbery.
Another candidate for the Sneakiest 5 might be the Vervet Monkey. Need I say more?
Under-appreciated 5
Hyenas have always been under-appreciated. For starters they look a bit weird - they have quite a strange physiology, with large powerful front legs and shorter back legs and a sloping back which makes them look as though the front end has nothing to do with the back end.
In some cultures Hyenas have long been associated with evil spirits while other human groups or tribes consider them to be thieves, stealing livestock, as well as small children and even the the spirits of their victims. There's even scientific evidence that hyenas have even fed on humans. Human hair has been found in 250,000 year old fossilised hyena dung but more recently there's plenty of evidence of humans being killed by hyenas throughout Africa. Wars especially have promoted this behaviour with the number of human corpses left to rot in the wake of civil or terrorist unrest. Even so, in my opinion, hyenas don't get a fair go.
There are four types of hyena: the Brown Hyena, the Striped Hyena, the Spotted Hyena and the Aardwolf. The first two are rare and are primarily scavengers, feeding on carcasses as well as the occasional prey that they might manage to hunt and kill. The spotted hyena on the other hand is both a scavenger as well as an accomplished hunter, while the extremely hard-to-find Aardwolf feeds exclusively on termites, thus separating it in many ways from the other three species of hyena. Though related to felines, the hyena also has many canine attributes which produces an interesting mix of behaviours such as hunting, marking territories, breeding, cleaning and vocalisation.
Hyenas have a reputation of being able to eat anything and this is one of their most important attributes - the spotted hyena has the strongest bite ever recorded. They can easily crush and digest bones left by other predators so perform the function of environmental cleaners, removing carcasses, including their bones from the landscape.
Like Wild Dogs, spotted hyenas hunt in a pack, often singling out smaller or apparently weaker prey before running them down and exhausting them. Hyenas can reach speeds of 60kph but more importantly, this speed can be maintained for longer distances than their prey.
Warthogs also get a bad rap in Africa, although less so now since Disney's Lion King was released featuring a warthog called Pumba. I haven't seen the movie but, like so many human depictions of wild animals, the cinematic version is far from authentic. Pumba is claimed to be very smelly - in fact he's the first ever animated character to fart onscreen. In real life you are far more likely to hear a zebra fart than a warthog. And as for smell, well, I rate Wild Dogs as being very stinky, they are on a level of their own. So Pumba, like many animals that get hijacked by the mass media, is a much maligned creature.
The vulture, of which there are more than 16 different species globally, also gets a bad rap - particularly as a character in cartoons and animated feature films. Despite the fact that there are nine species of vulture in Africa, cartoon versions always look the same - resembling an undertaker waiting for someone to die. While this characteristic might be quite accurate, vultures, like hyenas, have their own unique place in the ecosystem.
Like the hyena, vultures feed from carrion, the remains of dead animals that are too small for the apex predators, like lions, to bother with. That's why you often see groups of vultures sitting in vantage points near a dead animal or circling high on the thermals waiting for their opportunity for a hassle-free feed.
We both love the Honey Badger because it's an animal that's evolved to survive in a range of very different habitats and among predators that are far more powerful than itself. The diminutive honey badger is actually not a real badger - it's more closely related to the marten or weasel families, although it does have a passing resemblance to the UK badger. It's reasonably common although, like most nocturnal animals, can be hard to spot. It feeds on a wide range of small insects, including honey bee larvae and the honey that bees produce, as well as turtles, lizards, scorpions, snakes, small rodents, eggs and even berries and roots.
But it is the badger's fearless behaviour that makes this fella quite special. Even though a fully grown honey badger is not much larger than a (big) domestic cat it is completely fearless, especially when cornered. Its front legs are equipped with very powerful claws - I have seen two honey badgers take on a group of seven big porcupines and come out on top. There are records of honey badgers stealing meat from lions and chasing away leopards (see videos on YouTube). The badgers have a big attitude and apex predators would usually think twice about angering one of these little characters.
One of the main reasons why larger animals give the badger a wide berth is because of its tough and very loose skin. If a predator grabs hold of a badger in its mouth, it can still twist around and bite its attacker. The badger we saw scrapping with the porcupines had been skewered by three long quills but the badger hardly seemed to notice. Even more fascinating is the fact that badgers are relatively immune to snake venom - in fact snakes make up a good portion of it diet. Again its thick and loose skin helps protect it from bites and venom. Amazing little critters.
Other suggestions for the Unappreciated 5 include:
Chacma Baboons
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