If seeing the Big 5 is what you want to do, then speak to a Rhino Africa consultant and they will plan your safari for you.
The term the BIG FIVE is a term we use in Africa that refers to a group of five animals :
1. Leopard
2. Lion
3. Rhino
4. Cape Buffalo
5. Elephant
Many people think that the term describes the five most difficult animals to see when on safari. In fact the term relates back to hunting days when these animals were considered the most dangerous animals to hunt on foot. This is why the leopard is on the list and the enormous hippopotamus (noted for lazing around in pools and rivers all day) is absent. The Big Five are among the most dangerous animals in the world.
Read more on Africa's Big Five below ....
Many lodges and camps highlight the fact that they are in a BIG FIVE reserve and it is very much a 'marketing point' for the camp, as these are the animals that the guests most want to see!!!
Here are a few facts about the Big Five:
Lion
Family Felidae
Mass ± 200 kg / ± 440 lbs
Height ± 100 cm / ± 39 inches
Walking speed 4 km/h / 2.4 mph
Charging speed 80 km/h / 50 mph
Potential longevity 20 years
Gestation period 3.5 months
The Lion is a large carnivorous feline mammal (Panthera leo) having a short tawny coat, a tufted tail, and, in the male, a heavy mane around the neck and shoulders. A lion pride consists of related females and cubs residing in a home range or territory, numbering from 2 to 30 individuals. The males are nomads that have gained custody of a pride through competition with other males. The opportunity to monopolise reproduction of a whole group of females will result in a new male to a territory killing the cubs of his predecessor.
Hunting is done communally, often using driving and ambushing techniques. They will eat up to 25% of their own body weight. Their principal diet comprises the Impala, the most prolific of the region's antelope.
Elephant
Family - Elephantidae
Mass 6000 - 7000 kg / 13000 - 15000 lbs
Height 300 - 340 cm / 118 - 134 inches
Walking speed 10 km/h / 6.2 mph
Charging speed 40 km/h / 24.8 mph
Potential longevity 65 - 70 years
Gestation period 22 months
Record length of tusks 3,5 m / 137 inches
The African elephant is the largest land mammal. An adult bull elephant can weigh between 5000 and 6300 kg's, standing 3,2 - 4,0 metres at the shoulder. A cow being slightly smaller, weighing 2800 - 3500 kg and standing 2,5 - 3,4 metres at the shoulder. Bulls usually have larger tusks than cows and a more rounded forehead; the cow is more angled. . Elephant herds are matriarchal with an older cow leading the herd. The herds are usually family groups of up to 16. However, a number of family groups may join together when at watering sites forming large herds numbering several hundred.
The elephant's tusks are just modified incisor teeth, used as weapons and as an aid in procuring certain foodstuffs, like the bark of trees for example. The elephant also has a long trunk which it uses to drink and feed. An elephant's trunk can hold up to 15 litres of water. It uses its trunk to locate food by touch and smell, as an elephant cannot see down its trunk. If an elephant loses the use of its trunk it will die.
Rhinoceros
Family Rhinocerotidae
Mass 3500 kg / 7717 lbs
Height 160 cm / 63 inches
Speed 45 km/h / 28 mph
Potential longevity 45 years
Gestation period 18 months
Record length of front horn 158 cm / 62 inches
Record length of rear horn 56 cm / 22 inches
The herbivorous white rhino has a wide mouth perfectly adapted to a life of grazing. Its thick set body is covered by a tough leathery skin. The most distinctive feature of the rhino is the presence of 2 horns on the snout. These horns are composed of a protein which is similar to that of our own hair. Family groups of 2 - 5 individuals are protected by a dominant bull who defends his cows against other intruding bulls. A number of fixed latrine sites known as rhino middens demarcate a bull's territory.
Leopard
Family Felidae
Mass ± 60 kg / 132 lbs
Height ± 60 cm / 23 inches
Charging speed 80 km/h / 50mph
Potential longevity 21 years
Gestation period 3 1/2 months
The leopard is the least seen and least understood of Africa's "Big Five". It has been described as the perfect predator. It harbours enormous strength and supreme beauty and is perhaps the most powerful of the world's great cats. Leopards have a wide habitat tolerance; they are solitary and secretive animals except during mating season or when a female is accompanied by juveniles.
They are primarily nocturnal, however when undisturbed and protected they may be seen moving during daylight hours and are often seen lying up in trees. They usually hoist their kills up into trees to keep out of the reach of other predators and scavengers.
Cape Buffalo
Family Bovidae
Mass 750 kg / 1653 lbs
Height ± 160 cm / 63 inches
Charging speed 55 km/h / 34 mph
Potential longevity 20 - 25 years
Gestation period 11 months
Record span of horns 147 cm / 58 inches
Buffalo are large, cattle like animals. Once widely distributed in Southern Africa, the buffalo's numbers have been greatly reduced by large-scale hunting and sickness such as Rinderpest and foot and mouth disease. Now restricted to the eastern regions of South Africa, they are abundant in the Kruger Park and are frequently seen wallowing in muddy pools or grazing in the vicinity of dams in the reserve.
The buffalo is highly gregarious and usually occurs in large herds, with the largest herd estimated to be in the region of 400. Bachelor groups and single animals are also often encountered. A dominance hierarchy occurs within buffalo herds. Although a favourite prey item of the lions, the large horns and powerful muscles of the buffalo makes it a formidable adversary and it is frequently the lions who come off second best in such encounters.
