Big Four African Animals

Actually in the world of Africa animal viewing it is ’the big five’ that is most craved. They include the elephant, rhinoceros, lion, leopard and buffalo.

But my discourse here is on the ‘really big four’. They are as could be expected the elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo and hippopotamus. Of these the rhino is the rarest and also the least likely to threaten humans.

Recently back in Hamilton I was riding my bicycle on the Hamilton-Brantford rail trail. A smell suddenly caused a rush of adrenalin and instant vigilance had me looking in all directions. But almost immediately I realized it was cattle I smelled and not buffalo. But they are similar.

In Africa, of all animals, the buffalo is regarded as the most unpredictably dangerous. However, you are safe in a vehicle but maybe not so with elephant and rhino.

I recall on a game drive a tourist hung upper body out the window to get a really close up photo of a young buffalo. Suddenly the buffalo lurched slightly forward and then back. The tourist lurched completely back into the van, with the look of somebody who has been shot at but missed.

The driver said that was not that buffalo to be afraid of ‘it is the one behind him’. That one was larger with impressively curving horns and a calm stare which suggested he didn’t take crap from anything. But we were gracefully retreating by then. As bull buffaloes age their horns grow longer, but also become more massive across their foreheads. Some are so well armored it makes bush bars on the front of Land Cruisers seem delicate, and in a confrontation they might prove to be.

I, along with a young woman, had a bit of a scare from a small herd of buffalo… four or five. We were a kilometer from our campsite at an altitude of about 3,000 m. (10,000 feet) on Mt. Kenya. It is unusual to see animals this large this high up, but here they were running toward us. A decent tree to climb would have been great, but there weren’t any up here. The pile of rocks we clambered up didn’t offer much security. But it must just have been curiosity because they abandoned the “charge” fairly quickly.

I read a newspaper story where one park had an “excess” of buffalo and wanted to give some to another park. No other park wanted any more of these “truculent animals.
Ultimately elephants are the most intimidating. Long time Africa resident Joy Adamson said elephants were the only animals she feared because they would chase her Land Rover. We were never chased, but we were threatened. It is not the solitary male that is likely to be provoked, but the matriarch of the herd. She is in charge and is the prime defender.

While driving along the ridge of the famed Ngorogoro Crater in morning fog we stopped as a herd of elephant was crossing ahead. Although we were stopped some fifty feet from the crossing point a few of the smaller elephants were alarmed and started running across. The matriarch who had sauntered across took umbrage with the minor stampede which she blamed on us. She faced us, head moving up and down and ears flapping. These are unmistakable warnings that the elephant is upset.

The gestures were not lost on the driver of our Land Cruiser. He was getting ready to reverse the vehicle and back carefully down the road. The matriarch, at something well over four tons, could push our Land Cruiser off the ridge and not work up a sweat. But she apparently was satisfied with giving us a scare and headed after her charges.

The Rhino, looking like a throw back to the geological age of mammoth and sabre-toothed tigers, a loner, is shy and elusive. Along with leopards they are the least likely of “the five”s een in the wild.

As tourists one could get, almost intimate, (that means petting him) with Morani. Although his name means ‘great warrior’ this black rhino was particularly docile, some might say lazy. I had seen him two or three times over the years and maybe he twitched an ear once. But he was highly animated the last time I saw him tossing his head and reveling in the petting. He had his own 100-acre paddock at the Sweet Waters Game Reserve. He was beloved and an unofficial ambassador for Kenya and for animals. He died in 2012 at the age of 36.

While he was known to be quite gentle this reputation was not good enough to overcome his great bulk, at least for one little girl. She desperately wanted to pet him, but to stand six feet away she needed a four-foot long arm and a lot of leaning to pet him. She extended enough for her fingertips to almost brush his ear.

Morani’s place, which visitors can enter, was demarcated by two wires. It would be a ludicrous exaggeration to say he was fenced in or confined. At about five feet to the shoulder and approaching three tons of bone and muscle, he is blessed with a low centre of gravity. If he thought it necessary he could probably run through a concrete block wall without breaking stride. He had his own full time guard.

Although less likely for a surprise encounter, but maybe more dangerous than the buffalo, is the hippopotamus. While the lion might be king of the jungle and elephant dominant on the plain or in the forest, the hippopotamus is boss in the rivers and lakes. Crocodiles give a wide berth to hippos, which have been known to bite crocs in half. Hippos walk on the bottom and often live in large herds. Frequently one doesn’t see much of hippos with most of their bodies submerged, particularly during the heat of the day. Like crocs, sometimes in the water, all one sees is eyes and nostrils on the surface. At night they may go on shore to forage.

Generally hippos are viewed from vehicles, but tourists are invited to watch them from the banks of the Mara River on the Kenya/Tanzania border. The banks, depending on the water level, may be two to four meters above the river, affording some security from the hippos.

However, if one follows the river along at places the banks disappear. This happened with a couple of tourists. Our presence near the shore upset one hippo and she headed for us, I am sure intending to rout us. When she was knee-deep and still coming ashore I told the tourists it was time to run. One stubbornly held her position to make sure that the hippo ‘filled the frame’ of her camera. But with us clearly on the retreat the hippo turned back.

There is a short movie about animal life in an African pond. It is made clear that the hippo is at the top of the pecking, or should we say biting, order. Crocs are the only other contenders. If a big hippo needed more space on the shore a large wet nose might be used to suggest the croc move over. And while it does seem a little far fetched a symbiotic relationship between a hippo and crocs is suggested. We are told the mother hippo has to go away for awhile and “babysitting” for her “little” one is needed. She imposes the task on the two largest crocs in the pond by pushing the none-too-calm baby between the two. Movie viewers are told there are implied instructions that the baby better be safe when she returns or there will be hell to pay.

Actually one is probably better off trying to outrun a hippo on land than flee from one in a boat. They have surprising speed and staying power and have been known to take down motorboats.