Iconic Asian animals in contention for ‘New Big 5’ of wildlife photography – successor to colonial trophy hunters’ African ‘big five’
- India’s Bengal tiger and the orangutan of Southeast Asia are in the frame for a ‘New Big 5’ list of the most valuable wild animals for wildlife photography
- Its British instigator says ‘Shooting with a camera, not a gun is a far better way to celebrate wildlife than the old big five of hunting’
Nature is in crisis, with more than a million species at risk of extinction. The next decade will be critical in determining whether some animals, such as the African elephant, cheetah, and lion, survive in the wild.
Two Asian species – the orangutan, native to Southeast Asia, and the Bengal tiger of India – are among the contenders.
The project is the brainchild of British wildlife photographer and journalist Graeme Green.
The “big five” was a term coined by big-game hunters in colonial times and refers to the lion, the leopard, the rhinoceros, the elephant and the Cape buffalo. The list represents the five toughest animals in Africa to shoot and kill while on foot.
“The ‘New Big 5’ is a celebration of wildlife photography and the incredible animals that exist all around the planet,” says Green. “Shooting with a camera, not a gun is a far better way to celebrate wildlife than the old big five of hunting, and it’s a way to create something powerful and lasting.”