The tales of the legendary big five of Africa have captured the imaginations of many hunters and wildlife enthusiast over the centuries.
The term big five refers to the description of the hunters of old as the 5 most dangerous African game to hunt.

These animals is famous till this day for there cunning strength, stature and capability to defend themselves.
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The Big Five consists of the Gigantic African Elephant, the medicinal Rhinoceros, The respected buffalo, the cunning leopard and the king of the african plains the mighty Lion.

A visit to South Africa is not complete unless you have sighted the big five in there natural environment.

The African Buffalo ( Cencerus caffer )

The African buffalo is a great trophy which is cherished by many a hunter. This huge cattle like animals are very placid animals until disturbed. These large animals will defend themselves and there young to the end and can reach speeds of up to
40 -50 km/h. Both Sexes have horns with trophy bull horns growing 1.5 meter long. a Wounded buffalo is one of the most feared animals as they are well known for circling round the hunter and the trampling the hunter.

Diet description: African buffalo prefer long grass in high rain fall areas

Socialisation: Buffalo occur in large breeding herds that vary size from a few hundred to thousands of animals. The bulls form bachelor herds to bulk up and compete for the dominant position in the breeding herd.

One can only admit to have been to Africa if you have seen one of these great herds of buffalo in their natural habitat.

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The mighty African Elephant (Loxodonta africana)

The African Elephant is the largest living mammal on land, this species was almost wiped off the face of the earth by poaching for the ivory of there tusks. Elephants have very muscular trunks that is an extension of there noses which is used to smell pick food, signal and siphoning water. the African elephant is known for its ability to find water even in severer droughts and then digging for water.

Diet Description: Graze and browse up to 600kg a day

Distribution: They are widely distributed throughout central, western and eastern Africa, south of the Sahara, with the forest elephant inhabiting the rainforests of the Congo basin. There are isolated populations in the southern African sub-region.

Habitat: Dense forests to open plains - Clean drinking water and a plentiful supply of food are an elephant's only habitat requirements.

Socialisation: Elephants are generally gregarious and form small family groups consisting of an older matriarch and three or four offspring, along with their young. The males are mostly solitary and sometimes form bachelor herds.

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The African leopard ( Panthera pardus)

The leopard must be the most sort after animals sighting of Africa as the illusive animal appear and disappear at will before your eye. This predator is uniquely adapted to blend in with its surroundings as it lay on a branch in the shade of a tree.
Its spots allow it to camouflage itself against the weary eyes of its prey.

Diet description: Leopard feed on a wide variety of vertebrate that varies from small mice and insects to large antelope and even small giraffe. Fish, birds and reptiles will also be caught if available.

Socialization: Both sexes are solitary animals with large territories, the males territories are much larger then the females territories and is situated to such an extent than several female territories is located with in the males home range

The african leopard is a formidable predator which you can not afford to under estimate as this cat is pound for pound one of the strongest predators on the african continent.

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The African lion ( Panthera leo )

Being the largest cat on the african continent this predator stamps down respect and pride.
Lions have been hunted by man since the beginning and has almost be eradicated by farmers protecting there live stock.
Lion was originally wide spread a cross southern africa but is now only located in a few game reserves.

Lions now only have value in the sense of tourism as they need large areas of land and they cause a lot of damage to game farmers breeding stock when being re-introduced.

The game reserves which do have lion though have managed to bring the population up so successfully the lions numbers is becoming a problem in small protected areas, as the lion do break out when there numbers increase beyond the carrying capacity of the land.

Diet description: Lions prefer medium large prey antelope and prides tend to specialise in hunting species such as buffalo and in some cases elephant.

Socializing: Lions are gregarious and form tribes with 1-3 dominate males which would have breeding rights with females of the pride

Lions are some of the more impressive predator species located on the African continent

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Rhino Black(Diceros bicornus)
and White (Ceratotherium simum)

There is two species of rhino located in South Africa namely the Black rhino or the hooked lipped rhinoceros (Diceros bicornus) and the white rhino or the square lipped Rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum)

The white rhino is more placed then the black rhino but is responsible for more deaths due to people venturing to close to the animals.

They are also larger and much heavier. White rhino is grazers and there calves walk in front of the mother

The black rhino is very aggressive and smaller, they are actually nocturnal explaining there grumpy behaviour during the day. The black rhino is a browser and they prefer staying in thickets instead of the open grass plains like the white rhino.

Both these species have been endangered by poaching as rhino horn is very sort after commodity in the far east. These animals were almost poached to extinction.
Ironically enough when these animals could be hunted with the correct permits these animals value sky rocketed and they are now bred to numbers exceeding all expectations

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