Ernest Hemingway, in stories like the Green Hills of Africa and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, worked to romanticize big game hunting in Africa in the early part of the twentieth century. While Hemingway didn’t coin the term “African Big Five,” hunters in the late 19th and early 20th century coined this term to refer to the animals which posed the greatest challenge and danger in the hunt. Later, movies such as 1985’s Out of Africa continued to add to this fascination with the big game animals of Eastern Africa and piqued our interest to see them for ourselves.
In 2010, Margot, Caroline (Margot’s sister), and I went on safari to Tanzania in our own attempt to capture the big five. While we came armed with only cameras and camcorders, we were able to capture our own version of the big five, including the African elephant, the African buffalo, the leopard, the lion, and the black rhinoceros.
Recently we had the idea to investigate how these animals have been faring in the 16 years since that trip. Our primary resource for examining the conservation status of these animals is the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which has a world-recognized “red list” of endangered status, as well as a “green list” representing the effectiveness of conservation efforts and how far the species is from historic population levels. Below show an example of the red list and green list:
In addition, they offer a breakdown of threats, conservation efforts, and other vital information from the scientific literature.
African Elephant
Photo courtesy of author
IUCN Red List Status: Endangered
The African elephant refers to two species in the genus Loxodonta, the bush elephant L. africana and the forest elephant L. cyclotis. While on safari in Tanzania, we saw the bush elephant species. Elephants are the largest terrestrial animal and play vital roles in shaping their ecosystems as ecosystem engineers– for example, elephants tear down trees to create new grassland space, and dig waterholes. However, their ivory tusks are highly valuable in illegal markets for their culturally significant use in ornamental items. In fact, poaching remains the major cause for individual mortality in African elephants. Poaching numbers started to increase in 2008, according to the IUCN, and peaked in 2011– a year after our visit to Tanzania.
Despite decreases in poaching, it still occurs at unsustainable levels. Other threats include human-wildlife conflict and habitat degradation as human populations expand. The IUCN reports that the population trend in African elephants across both species is decreasing, with an estimated population in 2016 of 415,000 elephants for both species of Loxodonta. While the IUCN did not report more recent figures, it did report a decline of 30% in African bush elephants over a decade. Conservation efforts include listing elephants under CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) Appendix I, which strictly prohibits international trade in elephant parts. Anti-poaching efforts are the primary protective measure for African elephants, with habitat management playing a secondary role.
As of 2026, Tanzania, among other African countries, does allow legal, through regulated, hunting of elephants. This is generally restricted to adult bulls with specific weight and length requirements for tusks to ensure only mature animals are taken. The Tanzanian Wildlife Management Authority assesses significant fees, on the order of $75,000 for one elephant, and asserts that the funds thus raised are used for conservation efforts.
African Buffalo
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IUCN Red list status: Near Threatened
The cape, or African, buffalo’s scientific name is Syncerus caffer, and there are five recognized subspecies. We most likely saw the cape buffalo subspecies, which is most prevalent in East Africa. African buffalo have the ominous nickname of “widowmaker” due to their speed, ornery temperament, and tendency to attack hunters that have stalked or wounded them. Their horns, unlike other horned animals, are joined at the base of the skull, and form a near-impenetrable shield. The current size of the African buffalo population is currently larger and its IUCN status better than others in the big five. This is largely attributable to the buffalo’s greater reproductive efficiency compared to the other herbivores, the African elephant and the black rhinoceros. None-the-less, their major threat is habitat loss, which is caused by the expansion of human land use for housing and agriculture. Other threats include hunting, although unlike other members of the African Big Five, they are targeted for their meat instead of pelts, horns, or ivory.
While not driven by a market for horns or ivory, poaching has still been the cause of significant decline. The African buffalo is also sensitive to the results of climate change, such as drought, and are susceptible to disease. Historically, buffalo suffered their largest population collapses due to the disease rinderpest, which could have mortality rates as high as 95% amongst ungulates. Fortunately, rinderpest was eradicated in 2011, making it the only disease other than smallpox to be fully eradicated. For all these reasons, the IUCN has the buffalo under watch for increasing vulnerability. The vast majority of buffalo populations live in protected areas, so the future of this species is tied to effective protected areas such as the Serengeti or Maasai Mara, and well-managed hunting areas.
Today, legal hunting is allowed under similar regulations as the elephant, at least in Tanzania under the TWMA. The season runs from the first of July through the end of December and is limited to adult bulls. Not surprisingly, the fees for hunting the buffalo are much less than for the elephant.
Leopard
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IUCN Red List status: Vulnerable
The leopard is in the genus Panthera, which also includes the snow leopard, jaguar, tiger, and lion. Its scientific name is P. pardus; it is an elusive cat and in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, leopard densities are estimated to be around 5-6 individuals per every 100 km2. Other than the black rhinoceros, the leopard is the hardest member of the Big Five to spot. Leopards are threatened on many fronts. Habitat loss leads to reduced prey numbers and subsequent conflicts with farmers, who may kill leopards due to real or perceived threats to their livestock. Leopards are also subject to poaching, with their pelts and their bones being particularly valuable. In addition to the direct poaching of the leopard, their population is impacted by reduction, or dislocation, in prey due to the market for bushmeat. For all these reasons, the leopard population is decreasing in Africa, though the exact number of individual leopards on the African continent is unknown.
Conservation efforts for the leopard include limiting the trade in leopard parts worldwide, and discouraging farmer-leopard conflict through mitigation efforts such as increased education and compensation schemes. In Tanzania, legal hunting is allowed under TWMA regulations, and the payment of substantial trophy fees. In other countries in Africa, trophy hunting has been assessed and a moratorium placed where trophy hunting has occurred at unsustainable levels.
Lion
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IUCN Red List status: Vulnerable
IUCN Green List status: Largely Depleted
The lion is also in the genus Panthera, with its scientific name being P. leo. Leopards and lions share many of the same threats, with the primary threat to the lion being habitat loss. Other significant threats include human-wildlife conflict, in which people will kill lions that they perceive as a threat to life or livestock, and prey depletion. Like the other animals featured here, lions also experience poaching for their skins, bones, and body parts which are used in traditional medicine in Africa and Asia. Like the leopard, the lion population is decreasing, with the IUCN estimating that the population in Africa is 22,000 to 25,000 subadult and adult lions. Between 2006 and 2018, the lion population in Africa may have declined by as much as 25%.
Conservation actions for lions include the continued and increased protection of lion habitat such as national parks. For lions, this includes investing in peace measures throughout Africa, as extremism and warfare threaten lions’ survival in western and central Africa. For example, lions were extirpated from an abandoned national park in Côte d’Ivoire following civil war in 2002, and the W-Arly-Pendjari complex (Burkina Faso, Niger and Benin), the last remaining stronghold for lions in western/central Africa, is under severe threat from extremist groups.
In Tanzania, the regulations for legal trophy hunting of lions are similar to those for the leopard. An interesting note, the US Fish and Wildlife Service imposes strict findings which mean that documentation must be provided that show the lion was taken from specific concessions demonstrating active local conservation funding, before the trophy can be imported into the United States.
Black Rhinoceros
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IUCN Red List status: Critically Endangered
IUCN Green List status: Largely Depleted
We finish our survey of Africa’s Big Five with the most direly threatened member of the quintet, but also one with a little bit of hope. In 2010, we had the extreme fortune to actually see a black rhinoceros, scientific name Diceros bicornis, in Ngorongoro Crater. The black rhino’s most imminent threat is the illegal hunting to supply the rhino horn trade. Up to 95% of rhino horn sourced from Africa for use in southeast Asia is from poaching. Poaching peaked in 2015 and has decreased since. While the number of black rhino is the smallest of the Big Five at only around 3,142 mature individuals per the IUCN, their population is increasing.
The black rhinos’ recovery demonstrates the effectiveness of conservation measures for these animals, which includes their listing on CITES Appendix I (which bans the trade of black rhino and their products). To complement CITES, many consumer states also issued their own bans. To prevent further poaching, effective field protection remains necessary to insure their continuing recovery. Many remaining rhinos live in fenced sanctuaries or rhino conservation areas where law enforcement can concentrate their efforts effectively. For example, because Ngorongoro is a crater with limited access points, the animals can be more efficiently protected. Technology also has a role to play, with the use of FLIR and image recognition deployed in Kenya to aid in law enforcement’s interception of poachers.
Unfortunately, South Africa and Namibia still allow legal hunting of the black rhino but under very constrained conditions. Government conservation scientists must individually approve an animal to be hunted to ensure that it is considered “surplus”, meaning that it is an older, post-reproductive, male. Astronomically high permit fees, in the range of $350,000 to $400,000 naturally reduce demand for hunting permits.
Despite increased global awareness of the threats to these animals, and increased efforts at conservation, the population for most of the African big five animals continues to decrease, even in the sixteen years since our trip. Seemingly inexorable forces such as climate change and human population expansion continue to reduce these animals’ habitat. That and continued illegal hunting are the primary drivers of population declines. All except for the Black rhinoceros ironically. The Black rhino’s population had so seriously decreased that it is now possible for them to congregate in smaller protected areas where protections from poaching and further habitat reductions can be successfully implemented. When we decided to do this short retrospective, we weren’t sure what the change in these animal’s population had been since 2010. Discovering that they are continuing to decline for the most part is a sobering thought which draws attention to the need for continued conservation of these charismatic species.
By Dr. Margot Nelson, PhD & Rod Nelson