Africas Small Five

When in camp, however, you can still search for photographic subjects, namely Africas small five or 'little-five' as they are also known...

1. Ant Lion

The Ant Lion waits under the sand in order to ambush its prey with a large set of sickle-like jaws. It gets its name for this reason - lions ambush their prey and are ferocious!

Adults look similar to dragon flies and are normally active during the night where they are attracted to the lights. In the Kruger Park we have seen these Ant Lions mainly in the bushveld camps such as Sirheni and Bateleur where tere is soft sand and not tar and paving.

2. Buffalo Weaver

There are two species - the black Buffalo Weaver or Ox-bird; which is black with a red beak and is found in Southern Africa and the white-headed buffalo weaver that is found in East Africa. Buffalo weavers forage omnivorously on the ground in small noisy flocks, often in the wake of buffalo herds - hence their name.

In the Kruger park you can see some of these untidy nests in Satara camp (in the fever trees) and sometimes in the dead trees at Sunset dam near Lower Sabie.

3. Elephant Shrew

They are active during the day and run very fast - we saw some at the Kielie Krankie wilderness camp in the Kgalagadi but they did not keep still long enough for us to photograph them!

4. Leopard Tortoise

This is the most commonly seen member of Africas Small Five, so please watch the roads when driving through the park as these creatures are very slow and often get ridden over by visitors!

5. Rhinoceros Beetle

We have seen them in some of the Kruger Park camps. If you see a black beetle look carefully as it may be the more common dung beetle or the rarer rhino beetle.

Check out our interview with Jim Zuckerman to see a mean-looking rhino beetle with five horns!

So on your next African safari, keep a look out for Africas Big Five when you are on your game drive and then Africas small five when you are back at camp!

Return from Africas Small Five to The Big Five page

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