Everyone comes to Africa for the Big 5. Who are the Big 5 and how did they come to be?? This is not readily known to people outside the guiding community in Africa. So back in the day in 1909, Teddy Roosevelt came to Africa, in the pell mell of Colonisation and the looting of African resources, before the 1st World War. He had come for a hunt purportedly. As a frontiersman in the USA and the youngest ever President of the USA he was a charismatic figure and hunting was his well-known pastime. Sure he did hunt but also had some clandestine meetings in East Africa while he was at it.
At the end of a 6 month safari through Kenya Tanzania Uganda and so on he was in Mombasa in British East Africa ie Kenya to board his steamer home. When the press caught up to him finally since his safari had no pressmen in tow, and spoke to him of his African Adventure he talked about the hunt and named what he felt were the most dangerous animals to hunt. They are elephant , Black rhino, buffalo, leopard and lion. These of course became the Big 5. Madison avenue certainly did a number on Africa with that.
Well, African tourism which has gone from predominantly hunting tourism to safari tourism now has a new spin on the Big 5 and naturally the Little 5 showed up. The buffalo weaver, the leopard tortoise, the antlion, the rhino beetle and the elephant shrew. These now have the same names as the Big 5 but they are small, tiny even.
The other spin offs were the Ugly 5. The Ugly 5 are the wildebeest, said to be made from leftover parts of other animals leads the group, followed by the hyena, the warthog, the crocodile and the Marabou stork. The wildebeest though is an anomaly because it is one of the few animals to be camouflaged for the night. Predators and most other animals see in monochrome. The shoulder stripes of the wildebeest look like the moon in the grass when they are sitting down in the open plains. So I thought it would be cool to have a few pictures of these animals who are famous for all the wrong reasons. Voila!
