AFRICA'S BIG FIVE

A little quiz to start your day. Or mid-day. Or for night time thoughts. Which of Africa's Big Five is the most dangerous?

Collectively, my wife, daughter, and I saw the Big 5 on our recent visit. I say collectively, because only the Missus (Don't you just love it when a wife is called the Missus? Me, neither, so I won't use it again) got to see all five. Our daughter hadn't arrived yet, and I couldn't answer the bell for the morning safari that yielded the leopard. But we got to see the cheetah, so that should count for a leopard since they are tough to spot. (pun)

The leopard, while the toughest to find, due to his nature of not wanting to be found and his dwindling numbers is certainly ferocious. And fast, though not reaching the 65 mile an hour speed of the cheetah. But he ain't the toughest.

The Black rhino is also extremely rare. Unlike the White rhino, he's a thorn eater. The White rhino is a grazer; no thorns for him. Supposedly they are the same color, yet when we first saw the White one and I was told that, I was dubious. When we saw the Black one, I recognized him immediately as being somewhat darker. The White had a mom, dad and baby with them. The horn of the father's was immense. Even our guide said he had never seen one longer, and he has been the head ranger at Phina for 7 years. But it's not the Black rhino, even though he can weigh up to 3,000 pounds.

The lion, ohmigosh, you thought the king of the beast was the toughest? Me, too. Majestic, the male we saw, touted as the most beautiful you'll ever see, sat maybe thirty yards from us. We, in our open top 4 x 4 all terrain vehicle. He had his eye on his lioness, the killer of the family, who was fighting sleep, some 15 yards from us. The male just exhuberated his stately appearance. He knew he was the best, and he was, but not the toughest.

A killer of lions is the cape buffalo. And yes, he's the most dangerous of the Big 5. Surprised? Again, me, too. I was told that before a female got so close to our vehicle that it was a little spooky. It was as if she wanted us to feed her. With daughter and me in the back of the safari vehicle, we had no need to zoom on her. We could almost touch her. Meanwhile, her male buddies were butting horns, monohorns with no separation. They reminded me of big NFL linemen. And when they'd get too rowdy, an older buff would come over and break them up. Once on the reserve two locked horns, couldn't free themselves, and died that way. And they are the most dangerous, some weighing in at one ton.

We had a close encounter with a musky male elephant, dangerous in his own right. He walked directly at our vehicle, so our driver allowed him to take the rode. In the jungle, the larger rules the road or dirt path as it was. We never saw one trumpet, and I guess that was good. But like the buffalo, we saw a ton of elephants at three different locales.

So now you know. Until we saw all the buffalo at Phinda, we thought we might have to count a carcass of a buffalo we saw at Chobe in Botswana. After a recent lion kill. We could see lion tracks, but no lion that day. So I guess the lions are pretty tough, too, and don't always lose out.