The Big Five plus Two

Anyone who goes to Africa hoping to see big animals learns about the big 5: elephants, lions, rhinos, Cape buffalo, and that most elusive member, the leopard. There are other great animals too, but they are rarely seen; two of these are the spotted wild dogs and the cheetah. Elephants are pretty easy-- most places that do safaris have elephants. Lions aren't that hard either, and rhinos and Cape buffalo only a little more difficult to find.  But few people get to see leopards, wild dogs, and cheetahs.

Guess what!  The Schneider luck was with us this past weekend at the Madikwe Game Preserve in South Africa, and we saw all of the above. Well, Drew and Sara didn't see the cheetahs, but I got to check all those animals off my list. 

Lazarus, our guide for 5 game drives.

Among my hopes for this trip was to see the first four of the big five. I did not expect to see the leopard, and never even thought the cheetah would be possible. But our guide, Lazarus  (an excellent guide and animal behavior interpreter) found all of them.  When we finally saw the leopard, I have to admit I broke down and cried I was so excited. (but then, I've been doing a lot of that this trip it seems, with all the life list achievements, and some of the animals I wanted to see so badly).

Spotted Wild Dog -- part of a pack of 14, right after they killed a kudu. 

Matriarch of the elephant group

White Rhino (not really white -- it's a wide mouth rhino, shortened to white rhino for some reason.

Giraffe

Cape buffalo at night at the watering hole. Mother, baby, father, and in the front, an unrelated male. 

It is a most incredible feeling to be sitting 10 feet away from three fully-grown lions,  or 15 feet from the cheetahs, knowing that at any time they could pounce and do some serious damage to those of us in the jeep. That's a large part of the benefit of the guides -- they understand animal behavior and they don't put their guests in danger. I certainly felt very safe on all the drives, in the presence of all the animals.

Two males (brothers) and one female. 

Even lions get thirsty! Check out the zebras in the background -- zebra is one of the lions' favorite meals!

Madikwe was a photographer's paradise. In the two days we were there, I took more than 500 photos, plus quite a few videos (if I ever figure out how to add them to the blog, I will!) One of the videos was of the leopard coming down out of the tree -- probably my favorite one of the whole trip.

Iconic setting for a leopard -- what a sight it was!

Two of the four cheetah brothers. 

A couple of the photos here show some juxtapositions that you just don't see in every day life -- a photo with lions and an elephant, or lions and zebras not far from each other. You probably have to click on the photo to make it bigger in order to see the juxtapositions, and I hope you will. It is worth it!!

Here is the video of the leopard climbing down from the tree. 

Three days to go until I come home, and I must say, I'm not ready.  It's been such a wonderful trip that I want it to go on.