Africa’s Big 5

By James

Lion• Size: shoulder height up to 123 cm

in males and as low as 91 cm in females

• Weight: 150–250 kg for males and 120–182 kg for females

• Lifespan: 10-16 years in the wild. Up to 25 years in captivity

• Habitat: savanna grasslands• Diet: Carnivorous• Predators: Humans

• Did you know?: Lions can run at 50 mph, only cheetahs and antelopes can run faster

Leopard• Size: Shoulder height is from

45 to 80 cm • Weight: There is a lot of difference in

weight. Males are about 30% larger than females, weighing 30 to 91 kg compared to 23 to 60 kg for females.

• Lifespan: 12 - 20 years • Habitat: varied from open savanna

to tropical rainforest• Diet: carnivorous • Predators: not often eaten by other

animals but sometimes killed in competition for food.

• Did you know?: Leopards have really long tails, they can be up to 110cm long

Rhinoceros• Size: up to 2 meters tall• Weight: white rhinos normally

reach 3500Kg but the largest recorded is a massive 4500Kg

• Lifespan: 35 - 50 years • Habitat: grasslands and savannas• Diet: Herbivores• Predators: Humans

• Did you know?: Rhino skin can be up to 5 cm thick

African Elephant

• Size: up to 4 meters at the shoulder • Weight: up to 7000 Kg• Lifespan: Elephants can live up to 70

years in the wild• Habitat: Savanna and grasslands• Diet: Grazer, herbivore• Predators: Humans

• Did you know?: an elephant’s trunk can have up to 150,000 separate muscles in it.

African Water buffalo• Size: 1.7m shoulder height• Weight: up to 900kg• Lifespan: normally 20 years in the

wild• Habitat: grasslands but mostly near

to swampy areas• Diet: herbivores• Predators: lions, leopards and

spotted hyenas, sometimes crocodiles

• Did you know?: buffalo are in the big 5 because they a very dangerous and unpredictable, they kill around 200 humans every year.

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