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What are the Big Five and Why You may hear of the Big Five before going on Safari, from an old book, or from a nature documentary. Today, they are five of the animals which people most want to see while on Safari. One hundred years ago, amid pith helmets, mosquito boots, and 'darkest Africa', the Big Five were the most sought after animals to hunt. They were the fiercest, the most dangerous animals; the animals that would hunt the hunter.
Explorers of East Africa went home with stories of lions and leopards in the tall African grass, of rhinos that would charge at the mere smell of a person, of the Cape Buffalo hidden in the bushes, and of the terrors of an enraged elephant. |