Photo: JaysonPhotography/Shutterstock

Which of the 'Big 5' Animals From Each Continent Have You Seen?

Galleries
by Matt Hershberger Jun 24, 2014

Big game hunters on trips to Africa often referred to the “Big 5” — the five most difficult African animals to hunt on foot: the lion, the elephant, the Cape buffalo, the leopard, and the rhinoceros. Fortunately, these days, the Big 5 is used less as a to-kill list and more as a to-photograph list for safari-goers in Africa.

But what are the Big 5 for the other continents? What are the must haves for pro and amateur wildlife photographers in North America, for example? Or Australia?

Here’s a list of some of the best / hardest animals to catch on camera for each continent. How many have you shot? Pictures taken at zoos don’t count.

AFRICA

Lion

Photo: PhotocechCZ/Shutterstock

Although they’re usually thought to be an African animal, the lion used to exist throughout Europe and parts of America as well; there are still small populations in some areas of Asia. 

African elephant

Photo: Andrew Linscott/Shutterstock

Though still fairly common in sub-Saharan Africa, elephants are vulnerable to conflicts with humans, particularly in the form of illegal ivory poaching. 

Cape buffalo

Photo: Stephan Olivier/Shutterstock

The Cape buffalo makes the list because of how aggressive it can be towards humans. Along with hippos and crocodiles, it’s considered one of the most dangerous animals in Africa. 

Leopard

Photo: Andre Marais/Shutterstock

Leopards are difficult to find because they’re experts at stealth and tend to try and avoid humans.

Rhinoceros

Photo: Jonathan Pledger/Shutterstock

The white rhinoceros is the most common species in Africa and gets its name from a mistranslation of the Dutch word for “wide.” As you can see, it’s not really white at all. Rhinos have been known to charge humans and can be skittish in human presence. 

NORTH AMERICA

Grizzly bear

Photo: Georgia Evans/Shutterstock

Grizzlies are the easiest choice for a North American Big 5. They’re huge predators and are particularly dangerous. 

Moose

Photo: Dan Gaura/Shutterstock

Moose are on the list because of their distinctiveness and also because of their cultural ties to Canada and the American North, although there are also moose in Eurasia, where they’re called Eurasian elk. 

Bison

Photo: DD Dalkie/Shutterstock

Bison used to virtually carpet the American plains. They were everywhere. Then, naturally, European settlers came and treated them like they were an endless resource, which drove them into endangerment; although, lately, they’ve pulled out of the “endangered” classification, thanks to conservation efforts. 

Gray wolf

Photo: Pat Lauzon/Shutterstock

The gray wolf is not exclusive to North America, but I’m putting it on this list due to its cultural ties, especially to the American West. Historically, gray wolves have existed in pretty much all of North America and Eurasia but were wiped out by humans. Lately, they’ve been making a bit of a comeback, most famously in Yellowstone National Park. 

Polar bear

Photo: Gudkov Andrey/Shutterstock

The polar bear can be found in Canada, Alaska, Greenland, and pretty much any other Arctic region. They’re on the list because not only are they rapidly losing their habitat, and are thus decreasing in number, but also because they’re particularly dangerous, and are known to hunt humans.

SOUTH AMERICA

Jaguar

Photo: Mark Green/Shutterstock

The jaguar is the biggest cat in the Americas. Their habitat extends up into Central America. But they’re probably best known for their jungle homes in the Amazon and were culturally important to many early American societies.

Caiman

Photo: Giedriius/Shutterstock

Caimans are members of the crocodilian family that reside primarily in the Amazon. They’ve been known to feed on humans and also tend to live relatively far off from major human population centers, making them fairly difficult to capture on camera.

Poison dart frog

Photo: Dirk Ercken/Shutterstock

You’d have to eat a poison dart frog or come into contact with its poison for it to actually harm you. It’s not like it can attack you. But they get on this list because of their insanely vibrant colors and the fact that they’re incredibly small, and thus can be tough to spot. 

Ocelot

Photo: Saad315/Shutterstock

Honestly, ocelots are all over the place in South America, particularly the Amazon. I just added them because I think they’re awesome looking. 

Anaconda

Photo: Mark_Kostich/Shutterstock

Probably known best for that absolutely ridiculous Jennifer Lopez movie, anacondas are the heaviest and largest snakes on the planet (though the reticulated python is longer). They pretty much never eat humans, but as they kill through constriction, they probably could if they were big enough. 

ASIA

Panda

Photo: bgspix/Shutterstock

Of course pandas are on this list. Pandas are culturally connected with China, and though their population in the wild is somewhat precarious, there are a lot of them in zoos and preserves. 

Bengal tiger

Photo: enciktat/Shutterstock

The Bengal tiger is the largest cat in the world and also one of the most dangerous to humans, though of course humans are more dangerous to tigers. Part of the problem is that they exist in areas with extremely high human population densities, notably Bangladesh and India, both of which consider tigers their national animal. 

Snow leopard

Photo: JaysonPhotography/Shutterstock

Snow leopards are endangered and are native to Central and South Asia, primarily the Himalayas and other alpine regions. They’re extremely difficult to spot in the wild and tend to avoid humans. There are no known attacks on humans.

King cobra

Photo: Mufti Adi Utomo/Shutterstock

King cobras are the world’s longest venomous snakes and can reach a length of up to nearly 19 feet. They’re primarily found in Southeast Asia and prefer to avoid humans but can kill us with their bite. 

Asian elephant

Photo: Independent birds/Shutterstock

Asian elephants are generally more docile than their African counterparts and can be domesticated. That said, they’re still endangered thanks to encroachment on their habitats by humans and illegal ivory poaching. 

AUSTRALIA / OCEANIA

Kangaroo

Photo: Luke Shelley/Shutterstock

You aren’t going to have much of a problem finding a kangaroo. There are actually almost too many of them, and overgrazing can be a problem in Australia. That said, they’re so iconic they can’t not be on this list. 

Orangutan

Photo: arul_nkh/Shutterstock

You’ll have to go to Borneo or Sumatra to see an orangutan in the wild. Elsewhere, they only live in zoos and are critically endangered. Unlike many of the other animals on this list, their endangerment isn’t a result of poaching—it’s because of forest fires and deforestation of their natural habitats. 

Komodo dragon

Photo: Kit Korzun/Shutterstock

The Komodo dragon can only be found on the Indonesian island of Komodo and a few others. It’s the world’s largest living lizard, and its bite can be very dangerous thanks to particularly nasty bacteria in its mouth and mild toxins. They’ve been known to attack humans. 

Bird-of-paradise

Photo: Winsu Yudowibowo/Shutterstock

Birds-of-paradise are extremely colorful birds that are primarily found on New Guinea and a few other Pacific islands. They’re incredibly difficult to catch on camera in the wild because they tend to live in dense rainforest, difficult to access in New Guinea. 

Crocodile

Photo: Audrey Snider-Bell/Shutterstock

Crocodiles could be in the American continents’ lists, or in Africa’s or Asia’s, but I’m putting it under Australia, I’m ashamed to say, for two reasons: Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin. 

EUROPE

Reindeer

Photo: Jellis Vaes/Shutterstock

Technically, there are reindeer in North America, too, where they’re called caribou. But reindeer are particularly iconic in Russia and the Scandinavian countries, and they’ve become culturally synonymous with European Christmases. 

Lynx

Photo: Lubomir Novak/Shutterstock

The Eurasian lynx is native to both Europe and Asia and tends to prefer forested areas. It’s currently being reintroduced to Western Europe, where it was killed off. 

Eurasian wolf

Photo: Sergey Uryadnikov/Shutterstock

The Eurasian wolf is primarily in Russia and the former Soviet Union countries and is a relative of the gray wolf. Like many of the European species, the Eurasian wolf was systematically killed off and can only be found in the less-populated areas of the continent. 

Brown bear

Photo: Giedriius/Shutterstock

The grizzly bear is a type of brown bear but exists mainly in the Americas. The brown bear in Europe, again, is found mostly in mountainous and less-populated regions, meaning primarily Russia and Scandinavia. 

Urban fox

Photo: Czesznak Zsolt/Shutterstock

A quirk of urbanization in many European cities is that urban foxes—red foxes living in urban areas—have shown up everywhere. They’re not uncommon, but a good picture is tough to get, so they make the list. 

THE OCEANS

Blue whale

Photo: Andrew Sutton/Shutterstock

There are a lot of great whale-watching tours around the world, but you tend to not see as much in the way of the blue whale—the largest living animal, and the heaviest animal ever—as there are only around 12,000 in the wild.

Great white shark

Photo: Willyam Bradberry/Shutterstock

Probably one of the most misunderstood animals in the seas, the great white shark can be found in most of the world’s oceans but is tough to photograph unless you manage to catch it leaping out of the water—or are diving with it, which is just not a thing most people want to do.

Manta ray

Photo: magnusdeepbelow/Shutterstock

Manta rays are large eagle rays whose wingspan can reach 18 feet or so. They get a place on my Big 5 list because I’ve always wanted to catch a good picture of a manta ray jumping. 

Cuttlefish

Photo: David A Litman/Shutterstock

Cuttlefish are relatives of squid and octopi, best known for their camouflage and color-changing abilities. That’s why they’re on this list; they’re particularly photogenic. 

Bottlenose dolphin

Photo: gilkop/Shutterstock

Dolphins are among the most intelligent creatures in the world, and there are plenty of them out in the ocean. They’re another particularly photogenic species and often seem to be basically mugging for the camera. If you can catch a photo of them underwater, or airborne, that’s extra points.

 

 

Discover Matador

Save Bookmark

We use cookies for analytics tracking and advertising from our partners.

For more information read our privacy policy.