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Africa’s Big Five and Little Five

10,000 Birds

Originally a hunting term, the Big Five were the most dangerous and prized targets of the great white hunters on safari. Elephant The big – two species of elephant are now recognized as occuring in Africa, the smaller and more secretive Forest Elephant and the larger, more familiar African or Bush Elephant.

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Birding the Kruger Park (4): Letaba area

10,000 Birds

As the national bird of Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the African Fish Eagle is usually very busy whenever it stays in these countries, giving speeches, opening shopping centers, etc. The Latin species name vermiculatus (worm-like) refers to the markings on the upperparts. Of course, the second explanation makes a lot more sense.

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Deadly 60: Big Cat Battleground

4 The Love Of Animals

Steve travels to Namibia, a land of rolling dunes, sand and plenty of dangerous wildlife. At night, he catches up with a pride of lions to witness their hunting and killing skills in the dark, proving just how deadly and vicious lions are. Africa’s big cats are among the most iconic predators.

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Birding Botswana’s Borders

10,000 Birds

Leaving from the border town of Kasane we meandered westwards along the northern edge of the massive Chobe National Park to our left and the far eastern tip of Namibia’s Caprivi Strip. I bring this up because birding the Chobe River in northern Botswana gave me the interesting opportunity to bird a country I technically wasn’t in.

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Birding in a Hellmouth

10,000 Birds

There were opportunities to go to far flung places like the islands of the Pacific or the coast of Canada or the Yorkshire Dales… Anyway, as I was obsessed by Africa at the time, I leapt at the opportunity to go to Namibia to collect samples of bat DNA for a biogeography project. A Bat Hawk hunting bats. And then, there it was.

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Africa’s endangered species

10,000 Birds

More than 150 bird species are known to have become extinct over the past 500 years, and many more are estimated to have been driven to extinction before they became known to science. The Gray Crowned-Crane is a new addition to the list of the world’s Endangered species, creeping up a category from Vulnerable.

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The Bee-eaters of Africa

10,000 Birds

The wonderful family Meropidae contains 27 dazzling species, of which Africa is endowed with no less than 20 species, the balance occurring across Asia and with one as far afield as Australia. We have both resident and migratory species, and this post will briefly discuss each of the 20 species of African bee-eaters.

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