Today, we are on the second part of our seven-part “Plan a Perfect African Safari in Kenya” series. Traditionally when you go on a safari, you are going on a big game hunt. Your objective is to successfully shoot and bring back some of the largest and ferocious animals on the planet. These days the objective of a safari hasn’t changed except now you’re shooting the animals with your fancy DSLR and bringing them all back in your memory cards!
You must first hunt down the Big-5. Once you’re done with that you can go for many others. Here are the Big-5 we captured, plus five others you may also want to hunt for.
The Big 5:
1. African elephant – You’ll have no trouble finding them. However you’ll need to keep your distance as the last thing you want is for an angry mom to charge at you!
2. Black Rhinoceros – Here we caught a pair of African White Rhinos, a mother and son staring at at each other. The black rhinoceros is very difficult to find!
3. Cape buffalo – There are a few of these around. Not too hard to find.
4. Lion – There is nothing like hearing a lion roar in person in the wild (especially when you are sleeping in the tent)!
5. Leopard – You need luck to find leopards. They like to hide up in the trees. We got lucky and found this one cooling off in the shade.
Others worth searching for:
6. Crocodile – They’re huge, about the size of a hippo!
7. Cheetah – Beautiful animal. Looks like a leopard. Compare their coat pattern!
8. Giraffe – Once you see them in a herd in the wild you’ll never want to see them in a zoo.
9. Topi – The males of this type of antelope mark their territory by standing on a big pile of dung, ready to fight any other male that tries to invade. The taller the pile of dung, the better it is for them!
10. Warthog – They were very funny to watch. They always ran with an urgent purpose, like they were late to a meeting or something. Now we know why warthogs always wear business suits in cartoons!
Stay tuned for our post on “5 tidbits you should know about the Mara Crossing” tomorrow!
Seven Part Series of our Safari in the Mara North Conservancy of Kenya:
- Introduction
- 10 Must-See Animals (including the Big 5) – Current Post
- Five Tidbits about the Mara Crossing You Should Know
- Our Wildebeest Crossing Experience
- Choosing When and Where to Go
- Kicheche Camp Review
- Getting to Maasai Mara
You may also enjoy our Picture of the Week:
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June 2nd, 2012 at 12:37 PM
These are great pictures. What is the weather like there? Sunny everyday?
June 4th, 2012 at 12:49 PM
Surprisingly, Kenya can be quite cool. Most of the time, it’s sunny. But there were definitely times when we felt we needed a light jacket!