Keep your distance: The spotted hyena is an adept hunter, capable of killing an animal as big as a wildebeest, as well as being a ferocious scavenger. It has the most fascinating social structure of any large carnivore, living in matriarchal clans of up to 50 individuals
Once little more than an arbitrary grouping of anecdotal interest, the so-called Big Five — lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and black rhino, in case you need to ask — has over recent decades been elevated to the Holy Grail of the safari experience.
Fair enough, to a point — this venerated quintet does include some of the world’s most awe-inspiring beasties. But equally you could argue that the safari industry’s obsession with the Big Five has nurtured a tunnel-vision mentality detrimental to experiencing the African bush in all its holistic variety.