Monday, October 21, 2013

The Big Five

On African safari holidays, your tour operator will tell you about, and sometimes promise sights of, the "Big Five" -  lion, elephant, rhinoceros, leopard and buffalo.


"Big Five" is a game hunting term, first used in Africa to describe the most prized animals for big game hunters.  These animals were chosen as the "big five" because of the element of danger and difficulty involved in hunting them on foot.

Today, four of these animals are now endangered - most critically, the black rhino - and only buffaloes now exist in sufficient numbers to be hunted.  Poaching remains a significant problem for many African animals throughout the native countries of the Big Five (including Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania).

Sunday, October 06, 2013

What's Next...

We have been busy planning our online literary festival for November - lots of guest authors writing about interesting subjects, more book reviews by kids and loads of information about good books to read.  

Also coming up, quite a few great photos of African animals, thanks to Matthew Barnard and Iain Seow.   There's lots to look forward to in the next month or so...

Leopard in tree, South Africa 2013.  Copyright, Iain Seow, 2013