article thumbnail

Africa’s Big Five and Little Five

10,000 Birds

Prime destinations for seeing African Elephant in the wild include Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Uganda. They are harmless to humans and their horns are used for wrestling other males for mating rights. In Asia they are even commonly kept as pets! to the far reaches of freezing Siberia.

Buffalo 220
article thumbnail

Birds and People: A Book Review

10,000 Birds

It’s very hard to organize the many ways in which human beings relate to avian beings into comprehensible text. We sing about them, we paint them, we use them as mythic and poetic symbols for our spiritual and emotional feelings, we wear them in myriad and often colorful ways, we adopt them as household pets.

Birds 230
article thumbnail

Africa’s endangered species

10,000 Birds

This species prefers wetlands and its numbers have been decimated due to a combination of habitat destruction caused by human population growth and illegal removal of birds and eggs from the wild for the pet and zoo trade. This plain used to be little affected by humans, being grazed by just a few cattle, goats and camels.