Contrary to popular belief, the expression “The Big Five” was not created to reflect the five listed animals’ sizes, but rather the difficulty of hunting them. All the animals on the African Big Five list live in Kenya: the rhino, leopard, buffalo, elephant and lion.
The lion, "king of beasts,” is the apex predator on the land. There are concerns about their plummeting numbers caused by illegal poaching and the use of pesticides. In the late 1990s, 15,000 lions roamed the land; as of 2012 there were 2,000, according to Paula Kahumbu, executive director of the Kenya Land Conservation Trust and chairman of the Friends of Nairobi National Park. The rhino’s ancestry dates back tens of millions of years. Both black and white rhinos grace Kenya’s land, and both are endangered species. Buffalo are renowned for their power and short tempers. They use their menacing horns to defend themselves against lions, their main predator, and can be found in great numbers on Kenya’s plains. The African elephant, which can weigh over 6 tons, is the largest land animal on earth. They spend 18 hours a day eating, consuming up to 300 pounds of food. Leopards are the smallest of the big cats. Unlike lions, they are solitary creatures and therefore difficult to spot. An adult male weighs up to 100 pounds.
Kenya’s Indian Ocean coastline has six marine national parks. Much of the country's coast is protected by a coral reef with a bounty of wildlife that includes sharks, whales, dolphins, turtles and more than 250 species of fish. Inland waters are home to the Nile crocodile, one of the region’s top predators. They can grow to over 20 feet and weigh 1,650 pounds. The crocodiles’ diet mainly consists of fish, though they also consume zebra, small hippos, birds, other crocodiles and the occasional unfortunate human.
There are over 1,000 species of butterfly in Kenya, and more than 1,000 breeds of bird. The country is home to the world’s most accessible, most numerous flocks of lesser flamingos -- between 1 and 2 million congregate on Lake Bogoria from November to December. Kenya’s localized species include the vulturine guinea fowl, golden-winged sea bird and scops owl. There are over 50 types of raptors, such as cranes and falcons, and over 20 sun-birds. Other species include finches, pelicans, eagles and the world’s largest bird, the ostrich -- both the common and Somali.
Cheetahs reside throughout Kenya. They are the world’s fastest land animal, capable of reaching speeds of 70 miles per hour. The white wildebeest, or gnu, roams the country in vast numbers, as do giraffes, the tallest animals. Plains zebras were ridden by early settlers of the nation because, though harder to tame than horses, they were more immune to disease. Other land animals include the hyena, an array of monkeys and baboons, jackals and snakes such as the spitting cobra.
