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The Big Five
 

"The Big Five"; the term now used by tour operators and guides was originally invented by big game hunters in Africa. These animals were chosen for the difficulty of hunting them and not for their size: that's the reason why the leopard is listed and not the hippopotamus.

LION

Lions are the largest of the cats and are almost white to deep ocher brown in color with tawny yellow being the most common. The males grow thick woolly manes that vary widely in length and color. Their tails are long, often with a dark tip. The roars of both sexes can be heard at night from up to 8 km away. This roaring advertises their position. Group roaring identifies a prides presence and unity, and it discourages other lions from entering territory previously occupied by other pride. Male lions weigh up 260 kg and have a shoulder height of up to 128 cm. Their preferred prey weighs 45 to 300 kg. Gestation period is 100-113 days.

 

LEOPARD

 

Leopards are solitary (except when mating) and nocturnal animals that live in broken terrain away from lions, hyenas and people. Thus, the visitor is more likely to see their kill hanging in a tree in their “larders” before seeing them. They are the largest of the spotted cats, with black or brown rosettes on the back and upper limbs. Between their variably spaced rosettes, they are deep orange to tawny brown in color. leopards weigh up to 90 kg and measure about 250 cm in length from the tip of their nose to their tail. Gestation period is 90 up to 95 days. The best place to see leopards is the Serengeti
National Park.

 

RHINOCEROS

The rhinoceros is a prehistoric animal whose forebears date back many millions of years. It is the second largest animal in Africa after the elephant. The black and the white rhinoceros are related and their skin is similar gray in color. In fact, black rhinoceroses are now called Browse Rhinoceros and White Rhinoceroses are called Grass Rhinoceros. Gestation period is 547 up to 578 days. The best place to see rhinos is the Ngorongoro crater.

 

BUFFALO

The buffalo is one of the most dangerous animal, they live up to 100,000 in a herd. A buffalo can weigh up to 850 kg and grow to 170 cm in height. They have thick, bossed horns and drooping, tasseled areas.
The horns carried by both sexes, and the intervening boss set between the horns are used to bludgeon the victim. Gestation period is 300 up to 330 days. Buffaloes usually are everywhere in the national parks.

 

ELEPHANT

African elephants that live in the wild have a life expectancy of up to 60 years. They stop growing at about 20 to 25 years of age. No living animal exceeds the elephant in height at the shoulder; the bull elephant from Angola mounted in the foyer of the USA museum in Washington, measure just over 4 meters. Bull elephants can weigh over 6 tonnes while females tip the scales at about two – third of this amount. Bulls usually join the herd only when a female is in estrus. Thereafter, they rejoin the male herds or remain on their own. Gestation period is 22 up to 24 months. In the Tarangire National Park sometimes groups of up to 150 elephants can be seen together.