Beyond the Big Five

Who can resist the gracefulness of a giraffe walking across the savannah?

If you come to Kenya on safari, you’ll undoubtedly hear about the BIG FIVE.

Originally, this label was used by big game hunters to designate the five large animals that were most difficult to hunt on foot, including the elephant, rhino, lion, leopard, and water buffalo.

Now, it’s mostly a tourist thing that drives people to believe that if they haven’t spotted each of the BIG FIVE, their safari – or visit to Kenya – just isn’t complete.

That’s hooey, of course.

The amazing animal life of Kenya comes in all sorts of sizes and types.

Yes, spotting a lion hiding in the tall grass or family of elephants is exciting and mesmerizing. But, there's so much more. I’ve seen an entire safari jeep-load of people stopped in silence to admire a tiny dung beetle pushing a giant ball of poop. I’ve watched as people totally disinterested in birds have become enchanted by a pair of crowned cranes or tiny red-cheeked cordon bleu. I have yet to see anyone left unfazed by the graceful walk of a passing giraffe or bored by a family of warthogs running with their tales sticking straight up in the air.

Like so many aspects of living or traveling abroad, much of the best stuff comes with patience and happenstance. This is very true for animal sightings. More than once, we’ve seen something memorable only because we’d hit a dead end, taken a wrong road, gone off road with a local, or stayed later than intended. That’s how we encountered a pair of large Tsavo lions, found ourselves in the middle of a herd of more than 150 elephants, and saw our first set of cheetahs chowing down on a freshly killed impala.

And we’ve seen incredible things right at a campsite or lodge. It was while photographing a group of mongooses by our campfire that I noticed the black cobra they were staring down, with its hood open and ready to strike in defense. We met a genet (with its cat-like body and paws and mongoose-like head and tail) in a hotel lobby, and observed a rare pack of more than 15 wild African dogs from our breakfast table.

I admit that on the spectrum of low to high, I’m well on the high end of enthusiasm for animal viewing. And it's not just the ones you see on safari.

I get excited about the huge variety of birds in our yard, finding a porcupine quill while walking the dog, or coming across a multicolored chameleon in our neighborhood. I put up with the bat that flies around in our house, even though I’m told they can carry rabies. And I tolerate the geckos that drop their poop all over the house but make up for it by eating bugs. I do put my foot down in some cases. The house rule is no monkeys, our dog Bacchus sees to that. And I take no prisoners when it comes to rats in the attic.

We've been in Kenya less than a year, and already we've encountered a vast array of animals. Yes, we've seen the BIG FIVE, but it's the hundreds of everything else that really make it all a great adventure.

To share photos of all of them would be endless, but here are a few just to give you the idea.