Big Five Animals

Africa's Big Five animals refer to the elephant, lion, buffalo, rhinoceros and leopard and were so named as they were the most difficult animals to hunt by foot and the term was later adopted by those running safaris across Africa.

Due to prolific hunting both lions and bush elephants in Africa are now classified as endangered species. the leopard and white rhino 'near threatened' whilst any hunting of the black rhino is forbidden under international agreement as it is near extinction.

Of all the Big Five Africa animals only the buffalo exists in sufficient numbers to be currently considered not threatened and is thus game for hunting.

Although many of the Big Five animals can be found across Africa, all five of them together can only be located in the sub-Saharan countries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. For more information, facts, pictures and videos about Africa's Big Five animals see the profile pages below.