The Big 7 - Really?

The South Africans are pushing the envelope on the "Big 5", they're now marketing the Big 7. That would be the original Big 5 -- Cape buffalo, rhino, elephant, lion and leopard, plus whales and sharks. Anyone researching a safari will come across the term the "Big 5" these are the animals that we are supposed to get most excited about seeing. I agree with the elephant, rhino and lion, but leopard sightings are rare and often just a dash at night, not hugely impressive. And buffaloes are impressive but aggressive and yes, not hugely different to cows. Give me a giraffe any day, a herd of zebras, or a warthog family for that matter. How about the cheetah cub pictured here...

The "Big 5" morphed into a marketing term aimed at the modern day safari-goer based on hunters and what they liked to bag. The "Big 5" happen to be the most aggressive beasts to shoot, and since most of us like to shoot with a camera, it isn't all that relevant. Now the marketers are going to make us believe that seeing a whale from a distant shore is more exciting somehow than mixing it up with penguins further up the coast. Or that a Great White shark encounter is something normal mortals would even attempt to try. They haven't even bothered to distinguish between the different species of sharks or whales that are swimming off the shores of South Africa for that matter.

On an African safari my personal Big 5 would include: Lion, Giraffe, Mountain Gorilla, Elephant and Cheetah. What would yours be?

_{Image of a Cheetah Cub, Masai Mara Reserve, Kenya, sorry, NOT one of the Big 5 -- © Getty Images/Anup Shah}