The "Little Five" Of The Kruger National Park
The Little Five, as the name suggests, are smaller creatures that have the names of the Big Five in their common name: Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo. These creatures are fascinating and are just as interesting as their 'bigger five' cousins.
What Are The Little Five?
Antlion:
Antlions
are a group of insects in the family Myrmeleontidae (sometimes
misspelled as "Myrmeleonidae"). The most well-known genus is Myrmeleo.
There are about 2,000 species. Strictly speaking, the term "Antlion"
applies to the larval form of the members of this family, but while
several languages have their own terms for the adult, there is no widely
used word for them in English. Very rarely, the adults are called
Antlions. **
Leopard Tortoise:
The Leopard tortoise is a
large and attractively marked tortoise found in the savannas of eastern
and southern Africa, from Sudan to the southern Cape. It is the only
member of the genus Stigmochelys, but in the past it was commonly placed
in Geochelone instead. This chelonian is a grazing species of
tortoise that favours semi-arid, thorny to grassland habitats, although
some leopard tortoises have been found in rainier areas. In both very
hot and very cold weather they may dwell in abandoned fox, jackal, or
aardvark holes. Leopard tortoises do not dig other than to make nests in
which to lay eggs. Not surprisingly, given its propensity for grassland
habitats, it grazes extensively upon mixed grasses. It also favours the
fruit and pads of the prickly pear cactus (Opuntia sp.), succulents and
thistles. The African Leopard Tortoise typically lives 80 to 100 years.
**
Elephant Shrew:
Elephant
shrews or jumping shrews are small insectivorous mammals native to
Africa, belonging to the family Macroscelididae, in the order
Macroscelidea. Their traditional common English name comes from a
fancied resemblance between their long noses and the trunk of an
elephant, and an assumed relationship with the true shrews (family
Soricidae) in the order Insectivora because of their superficial
similarities. As it has become plain that the elephant shrews are
unrelated to the shrews, the biologist Jonathan Kingdon has proposed
that they instead be called sengis, a term derived from
local languages.
**
Rhinoceros Beetle:
Dynastinae
or Rhinoceros Beetles are a subfamily of the scarab beetle family (Scarabaeidae).
Other common names – some for particular groups of rhino beetles – are
for example Hercules beetles, unicorn beetles or horn beetles. There are
over 300 known species of rhino beetles.
**
Red Billed Buffalo Weaver:
The
Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver (Latin name Bubalornis niger) is described
in Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th Edition. This bird has a unique
Roberts number of 798 and you will find a full description of this bird
on page 1003 also a picture of the Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver on page
1009. The Red-billed Buffalo-Weaver belongs to the family of birds
classified as Ploceidae and is also known as the Buffalo Weaver.
**information and pictures of the Antlion, Elephant Shrew and Rhino Beetle obtained from Wikipedia.org**
