The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

... or should I say the big, the little and the ugly ... wildlife of South Africa.

It started off with the Big Five: lion, rhino, cape buffalo, elephant and leopard, the five game species that were most desired as hunter’s trophies in times gone past. They now represent the five species that visitors to classic African wilderness areas most want to see. Next came the Little Five which I blogged about last year.

vultures

But now it seems everyone wants to get in on the act. There are the ugly five – and if you’ve seen them, you know that they deserve this title. Although having said that, they are no less interesting and they do add to the whole African experience!  They are the:

• Hyena
• Wildebeest
• Warthog
• Vulture
• Marabou Stork

Cape mountain leopard

There are also the impossible five, because of their being so elusive and hard to find.  Trust me, they are. I have only seen night camera photographs of most of them. They are the:

• Aardvark
• Cape mountain leopard
• Pangolin
• White lion (in the wild)
• Riverine rabbit

seals on Seal Island

And in the sea, there are the Marine Five.

• Southern right whale
• Great white shark
• Bottlenose dolphins
• Cape fur seals
• African penguins

Five is not enough for the air. Kruger National Park has come up with the Big Six Birds, the ones that most birders come to the park to see.

southern ground hornbill

The Big Six Birds are:

• Kori Bustard
• Martial Eagle
• Lappetfaced Vulture
• Pel's Fishing Owl
• Saddle-billed Stork
• Southern Ground Hornbill

Southern hemisphere night sky, February 2015

Not to be outdone by the terra firma, the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa has even come up with their own list, the Big 5 of the African Sky.

• The Southern Pleiades open cluster
• Eta Carinae Nebula
• Coal Sack Nebula
• Omega Centauri globular cluster
• Milky Way Galaxy

Sadly, nowhere on any of these lists are some of my favorite iconic African animals. So I will come up with my own list. Some are easier to find than others, but it wouldn't be Africa without them:

• Zebra
• Giraffe
• Hippo
• Cheetah
• Gemsbok
• Kudu
• African wild dog