The Big 5 vs The Little Details

Skimmer in South Luangwa courtesy Norman Carr Safaris

A recent press release from a South African safari lodge detailed the number of times in the last 100 days their clients had seen the Big 5 of rhino, elephant, buffalo, lion and leopard. The percentage was high, proving both the quality of the area for wildlife and the efforts made by the guides to track and find the animals their clients want to see.

Macro images from Robin Pope Safaris' guide Simon CousinsIt got me thinking about my best game drives and the times I’ve enjoyed most with particular guides in Africa. Inevitably my first leopard sighting, or seeing huge herds of elephants, were among my favourites, but there were other things in there too –watching a skimmer fly low across a waterhole in the South Luangwa, spending thirty minutes chatting about golden orb spiders at Phinda, seeing bat hawks hunting at dusk again in Zambia. This proved to me that it’s not all about the obvious animals and that it’s important that your guide takes to time to find out where you’ve been before and what you want to see.

A good guide will bring the bush to life for you and allow you to understand a bit more about the whole ecosystem and the interdependence of all the animals within it – it’s something I often describe to clients as the difference between the depth of an Attenborough documentary vs the surface scratching of the Holiday Show.

We were fortunate to receive some stunning macro photos this week from Simon Cousins, who guided for Robin Pope Safaris for many years. These are the photos which accompany this article and which prove that the smaller things, which can be overlooked, can be as interesting in their own way as the Big 5

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