Big
Five was inspired by my brother Barr, who is currently studying to be a
veterinarian. In 2004 he spent a summer working in an animal rehab center
and private game reserve near Kruger National Park in South Africa. Barr
came home with many pictures and stories of the amazing things that he saw
there, such as the Big Five. “Big Five” was coined by African
hunters of a bygone era to describe the most difficult and dangerous animals
to hunt on foot: the Lion (the most dominant of the pictured animals), the
Black Rhinoceros (whose horns are on the top of the lion’s nose),
the African Elephant (represented by the trunk and tusks that protrude from
the lion’s chin), the Leopard (whose head and paw rest just above
and behind the lion’s), and the Cape Buffalo (represented by its horns,
one side which curves into the lion’s mouth and the other out like
a tongue). Today the Big Five have become synonymous with Africa and are
thought to be some of the greatest animals that can be seen in the world.