The Big 5 of Tanzania and Kenya
You haven’t been to Tanzania and Kenya if you haven’t seen the Big 5 : The 5 Big and powerful animals in Nature’s own hierarchy. They are wild as wild can get, strong as strong can define, independent, deadly and dangerous. A term originally coined by big-game hunters to name the biggest and hardest animals to hunt on foot, the term stuck and is inseparable with the wildlife of Africa. Big 5 are part of the wild life landscape of several African Countries. I was fortunate to witness them first hand in Tanzania and Kenya, the big 2 for the Big 5.
The African Lion, The African Elephant, The secretive & nocturnal African Leopard, The Rhinoceros and the aggressive Cape buffalo
Making sure we saw all 5 in Tanzania was relatively harder. The Lion was easy. It was present in large numbers in the Ngorongoro crater and the Serengeti. The Elephant was the next. The Buffalo wasn’t there in as many numbers where we went, but we saw a good number of them. The Leopard was hard and the Black Rhino was harder. Our guide Onesmo told us we got super lucky with both.
The sighting in Kenya was relatively easier. The Rhinos were plenty and we got really luck with the Leopard
African Lions are consummate predators, and their daily lives are quite fascinating for animal lovers. African lions are social animals and they live together in a pride. Each pride has about 3 male lions, 6-12 female lionesses, and the lion cubs.Usually, the lionesses are the ones that go hunting, and feed the cubs. Male lions usually occupy and mark territory of their own, after conquering the apex alpha males that lives in the are.
It was fascinating to turn off the jeep engine and sit there watching a pride … majestic indeed.
Do you notice the subtle differences in the mane of the lions from Tanzania (on the left) vs Kenya (the one on the right) ? If you do, please write in the comments section.
African Leopard : The leopard is the smallest of the big cats of the Serengeti. They are solitary animals with one exceptional night vision and are fond of hunting at night time. During the daytime, make sure you check the surrounding trees around the kopjes - leopards always use select trees as their bed and dining table (as they draw their hunt to the top of the trees, to prevent scavengers and other animals from getting them.
The African leopard is an elusive creature. If you manage to view one when you are in Tanzania or Kenya, you should definitely consider yourself to be lucky.
I must thank the Verve monkey for screaming like hell to give away the hideout of the leopard we sighted in Kenya and I managed to photograph the Kenyan Leopard (on the right) from pretty close. You can see that the Tanzania Leopard ( the one on the left) was much farther.
Cape buffalo : The African buffalo or Cape buffalo is a large horned member of the bovids, the hoofed animal family. They are the only animals within the Big Five that are not endangered or threatened. They look bovine and timid, but do not be fooled by their looks.
The Cape buffalo is considered by many to be the most dangerous of the big five to hunters, with wounded animals reported to ambush and attack pursuers.
The buffalo's main predator is the lion, who must employ tactical methods to hunt them, especially to avoid the thick, bullet-proof horns on its head!
I must tell you, these guys look the mean machines that they are. We sat at a respectable distance and watched as they grazed around peacefully
African elephant is a very large herbivore having thick, almost hairless skin, a long, flexible, trunk, upper incisors forming long curved tusks of ivory, and large, fan-shaped ears. They are the largest land animals on the planet and watching them in close quarters is an experience in itself.
They become aggressive when their young ones are in danger or threatened. It was quite adorable to see them accompany their new borns, constantly looking out for them, coaching them and protecting them. look at the picture on the left. The mummy elephant is actually helping the baby (very young… the tusks haven’t even started emerging) put its trunk in its mouth. Look at the two mommas from two countries pampering their babies, Adorable.
The heat in Kenya can get to the big guy. It was fascinating to see him go around dousing himself in dust to handle the heat. Poor chap
We had one really big guy hang around just beyond the electrified fence of our camp in Kenya and it was fascinating watching him for an hour from 10 feet away.
The Black Rhinoceros is a large herbivore having two upright horns on the nasal bridge. Its thick (1.5–5 cm) protective skin, formed from layers of collagen , is very hard to puncture. It is now critically endangered due to years of illegal poaching. In the context of big-game hunting in Africa, the term "rhinoceros" may also refer to the white rhinoceros, but when people speak of big five they are often referring to the black rhinoceros. My pictures cover both black and white Rhinos. By the way, white is not color white. All Rhinos are grey. I will keep that story for another time.
We got super lucky in Serengeti to be just 25 feet away watching the big guy make threatening moves and then walk away. Spotting a black Rhino in Tanzania was luck. The Rhino in the top left picture is from Tanzania. But Rhino is Kenya was a treat. The remaining 5 are from Kenya, but each of the pictures with a different story.
The guy in the marshy slush is the 40 year old Rhino which turned blind. It is now friendly to humans and we could touch and feed him. We then saw not one but a herd of Rhinos in the savanahas of Ol Pejeta conservatory
But the one I must talk about are the two Northern White Rhinos (bottom right pictrue). These are Najin and Fatu, the last two of the Northern White Rhinos on the planet and they are both female. An 8 nation effort to prevent the extinction of this line is on through works first IVF with semen preserved from the last white male Northern White Rhino Sudan which died in 2018
