THE BIG FIVE

Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Buffalo and Rhino (White and Black). The Big 5. Some of the most iconic, unique and beautiful creatures found in the southern African bushveld. Most ‘safari’ guides and lodges use having the Big 5 on their land as a key selling point and boast about the ability to let you ‘tick off’ the Big 5 in one game drive. Guests love this, they’ve dreamt about seeing these animals for so long. You can’t blame them. Every travel company, lodge and nature documentary places these 6 species on a pedestal to stand out amongst the rest of the species that they share an ecosystem with. But should the Big 5 be such an important consideration for your time in the bushveld, especially if you’re wanting to focus on sustainable biodiversity conservation? To begin, let’s look at the history of the Big 5…. 

The term the Big 5 originated in the colonial hunting era. These species were the ones considered to be the most dangerous in the bush and most difficult to hunt. The eventual goal was to ‘tick off’ (see that phrase again?) all the Big 5 from your hunting bucket list and the collect the trophies to go with them. Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, thanks to trophy hunting, we have vast protected areas and species (including the white rhino) that have been brought back from the brink of extinction. But there are so many other species aside from the Big 5 that one can see in the bushveld, so why do tourists boast about seeing the Big 5?

Of course there is no denying that seeing these incredible animals in the bush is certainly a humbling experience. They are truly some of the most spectacular species found on the African continent. However, nature based tourism in southern Africa is functioning in a broken system. From every angle, the Big 5 is promoted or searched for. Travel companies promise their guests the chance to see the Big 5, guests ask their guide to see the Big 5 and guides chase down sightings of the Big 5 with the hope of getting a nice tip. If you ask most guides they’ll tell you that they’d much rather go looking for a narina trogon than another lion. So really, just like with lion cub petting, you can’t blame the guest. Unless they search out articles such as ours and become extremely knowledgeable on this industry, they are just excited to see what they have been told to be excited to see.

This needs to change. For many reasons.

The southern African bushveld is absolutely fascinating. It is made up of species which might not be the most beautiful or the biggest but play a key role in the functioning of the entire ecosystem. The promotion of the Big 5 does not encourage guests to learn about ecosystems, it does not encourage guides to take a holistic view when interpreting what they see and find and frankly it does very little for sustainable biodiversity conservation. Guides rarely explain to guests how each plant is directly linked to the soil type, how each bird is linked to the tree species and how every animal has a place and function in the system. It does not allow us to spread the message of complete conservation across the globe. And, as a tourist who is searching for the Big 5, or has been sold a package based on finding the Big 5, you might be missing out on some spectacular reserves which might not be home to the Big 5. Instead they will be able to give you a glimpse of a pack of African wild dogs, might be home to a colony of Cape Vultures or may have some beautiful Ana tree forests.

There is one good thing that I can think of about the Big 5 attitude and that is their role as umbrella species. Much like an umbrella protects everything underneath it from the rain, conserving any one of the Big 5 will allow us to protect all the species which fall below, and sometimes above, them on the food chain. See, its very difficult to get donors excited about conserving pipits or jackalberry trees, but many people will jump at the chance to conserve elephants. And when an elephant is protected its role is so big in an ecosystem - excuse the pun - that their protection will also protect trees and birds and every link in the ecosystem which would otherwise fall apart. It’s not ideal. We should be conserving wild spaces and species just for their presence and not for their charisma. But we are at a critical time in biodiversity conservation and if umbrella species is what it takes then that’s what we’re going to have to use.

There are far more unique and endangered species than those that make up the Big 5. Consider this; if your guide asks you whether you would like to focus on viewing elephant or African wild dog on your game drive this morning, what would you say? Chances are you’d ask to see the elephant, much like one of my friends who was extremely confused when her guide in Botswana drove her ‘half an hour just to see some dogs’. Did you know that there are around 470,000 African elephants left in the wild, but only 6000 African wild dogs? Through going to the bush not with a tick list of animals you absolutely have to see and get a photo of, but with the attitude that you would like to experience the bush holistically, to appreciate the ecosystem as a whole and to learn about why this environment is so important you can expect to come away with a much more enriched bushveld experience – and you might see some incredible, unusual and amazing animals along the way. 

This attitude and our approach to it is one that needs to change from all angles. While we could claim that the Big 5 are effective umbrella species this thought process isn’t helping us to advance conservation. This is what we’re trying to achieve here at Thatch and Earth, we’re trying to ensure that species, wild places and wild spaces are valued simply for their presence and each visitor to these places learns about and experiences the entire ecosystem, rather than driving straight over the dung beetle filled elephant poo on the way to see the elephant itself. Tourism operators need to stop promoting the Big 5, guests need to stop requesting the Big 5 and eventually the demand for this tiny subset of the bushveld ecosystem will morph into a demand for an understanding of the entire ecosystem and how a trip to see this part of the world can ensure its survival and resilience far into the future.