Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Big Five!

The term "Big Five" originated in the 1800's as the 5 most dangerous animals in Africa to hunt!

  • The African Lion - the largest in the cat family
  • Leopard - probably our most beautiful large cat - and one that I have NEVER seen in the wild - how sad is that?
  • The African Elephant - the larges land animal
  • The White and Black Rhinoceros - with the Black rhino being the most dangerous
  • African Buffalo - cunning and dangerous with the nickname "dagga" which is the local African word for mud (they love wallowing in mud) and not some local weed!

Now - how's this for interesting? The Big Five will soon become the Big Seven with the addition of sharks and whales! I don't know if I agree with that - they're not African animals! What do you think?

4 comments:

Shaun said...

I agree ! What are the chances you will see those two on a game drive in the Pilanesburg ?

Have a super afternoon !!!

Love Bears All Things said...

And we don't usually think of them as animals.
Mama Bear

Firefly the Travel Guy said...

The Big 5 will always stay just that. The Big 7 is something we in the Easyern Cape have started to use. It was first coined by the Addo Elephant National Park as they now have a marine reserve as part of the park, which is something very few parks or reserves in the world can say. The Big 7 was coined as a marketing thing to show how unique the area is having both the Big 5 as well as the Great White Shark and Southern Rights Whales within its borders.

Country Mouse, City Mouse said...

I don't think those should be included. The Big 5 should be unique to Africa, in my opinion.
Who is including those new two?