africa | regions FEATURE ON THE TRAIL OF THE BIG FIVE
The iconic Big Five stand out amid a continent blessed with a staggering variety of wildlife. By Andrew Eames
Aerial view of elephants, Okavango Delta, Botswana
The phrase ‘the Big Five’ — central to safari tourism in Southern Africa today — was coined back in the days when big game hunting was commonly practised in the region. The animals it described — lion, leopard, black rhino, Cape buffalo and elephant — were singled out as they were supposedly the hardest to hunt on foot. Today — mercifully for these magnificent beasts — most of that hunting is done with a camera, but that doesn’t make these animals any the less intimidating, especially for anyone on a walking safari. You can’t help but feel huge respect when faced with a creature that would be higher than us in the food chain were it not for our ingenuity. And while there are plenty of compelling African wildlife experiences that don’t include the Big Five — mountain gorilla-trekking in Rwanda or Uganda, for example — it’s nevertheless true that to gain a reputation as a safari destination, you usually have to have all five, as in the case of South Africa, Kenya, Botswana, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and Uganda.
