Finding Africa's Big 5 in Kruger National Park, South Africa

**Finding Africa's Big 5** If you are looking for Africa's "Big 5" then Kruger National Park should be your destination. For those not in the know the Big Five is a term left over from colonial hunting days in Africa for the five animals that if a hunter shot but didn't kill, the animal could charge and kill the hunter. This elite group of potentially deadly animals include elephants, rhino, leopard, lion, and cape buffalo. Now the term is thrown around more by enthusiastic wildlife watchers in safari vehicles trying to shoot a photo of the Big 5.  *African Elephant* Even though these animal sightings are heavily sought after, to the point of camps having recent sightings boards up with moveable magnets for each animals, it can still be quite a challenge to see them all. If you are in a place like Kruger National Park in South Africa and get quite lucky then it is possible to see them all in a day, but the longer you stay in the park the better your chances.   African elephants are often one of the first of the Big 5 to be spotted by visitors to the park. With nearly 14,000 elephants in Kruger daily sightings are almost guaranteed. And even if you aren't looking at an elephant you can probably look around and see some evidence that one has been in the area. Trees toppled over and elephant dung are two often visible sights along the roads. This is also the one member of the big 5 that still makes me very nervous while inside the 'safety' of a safari vehicle, as they have been known to charge, damage, and even flip over cars in the past.  *White or 'square-lipped' rhino*  *All Lined Up*  *Funny way to scratch yourself* Seeing rhinos in the wild is always a magical experience, and one that you may not have a chance to see in the future. Poaching of rhinos for their horns is at an all time high, especially in Kruger National Park where nearly 500 rhinos have been killed by poacher THIS YEAR! Officials say that at any time they expect around a dozen groups of poachers are working their illegal trade inside the park, mostly up by the Zimbabwe and Mozambique borders. As the population of rhinos dwindles the demand for rhino horns increases. Hopefully education and conservation will ultimately win this war but in the meantime I savor each and every rhino encounter. The fact that we can see white and black rhinos can be seen inside the park which is an amazing thing when you look at how critically endangered they have been. Southern white rhino populations dipped to a low of 50 in the early 20th century but are not up around 14,500. Black rhino populations dipped below 2500 in the late 2000's but efforts to save them have brought the number's back up a little. If you want some less hopeful rhino news you can take a look at the wikipedia page on black rhinos and see how many subspecies have gone extinct under our watch. We were lucky enough to see 2 different black rhinos over a week long stay in Kruger and quite a few white rhinos.The total number of rhinos in the park is a closely guarded secret due to poaching. ![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/dtam/23sxC2gdygvhrGcT5cKn9t1xm1VdjwiYqp2ct1t35Xx1YrGvWzwYX […]