The Ugly 5 – Jadi Campbell

Meet The Ugly 5. #3 Maribou Stork

Ah, the Maribou Stork. This bird is one of the infamous Ugly 5.

Dining out is the best! Nothing beats a well-aged steak. Chobe National Park, Botswana

This bird is a real stinker. Literally. A Maribou stork eats whatever’s lying around and was killed or died a reaaaallly long time ago. The first time we met this stork was in Botswana. We drove past the remains of a very, very dead water buffalo that we smelled long before we reached it. As we drove by, a head suddenly popped up. We’d interrupted a stork enjoying its supper.

In January in Arusha Park, Tanzania, we had the unnerving experience of seeing a flock of these storks flying overhead. The Maribou is huge, and it’s strange.

Several flying at the same time really fill the sky. Tanzania

Maribou aren’t picky eaters. They’ll dine on termites and small birds, garbage, and the carcasses of animals, including elephants. Other storks are elegant, but not this one. A Maribou can weigh as much as 7kg, grow to 1.52m, almost 5′ tall, and an 8’8″ wingspan – 2.7 meters! When one flies by, you definitely notice.

Next up: warthogs and vultures.

NOTES: © Jadi Campbell 2026. All photos © Uwe Hartmann. To see more of Uwe’s animal photos and pics from our trips go to viewpics.de.

I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. Recent awards include Finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award for The Taste of Your Name and Finalist for Greece’s Eyelands 11th International Short Story Contest.

Follow this link for Amazon.com.

Meet The Ugly 5. #2 The Wildebeest

The goal of everyone who goes on safari is to spot The Big 5: lion, elephant, leopard, rhinoceros, and Cape buffalo. It took us 3 tries to see them all, but in January this year we finally did it!

You talkin’ to me? Etosha National Park, Namibia

Less famous (or looked-for) are The Ugly 5. The 5 are known for weird body builds and dull coloration, on a continent where each animal is more striking than the next. I give you #2:

Keeping their distance from everybody else. Etosha National Park, Namibia

The Wildebeest. It’s not only one of Africa’s Ugly 5: the wildebeest, along with the zebra, takes part in the largest migration in the world. In January we watched from a jeep as 1.5 million animals made the winter trek in Serengeti National Park.

the Great Migration at Serengeti Park, Tanzania

Like the hyena (who we met as Ugly #1), the blue wildebeest has short hind legs and longer front legs (for endurance) and wide forequarters (greater lung capacity). The wildebeest has a strangely flat face, both sexes grow horns, and their coloring is a dark grey, blueish sheen. I’ve heard them called the ‘spare parts critter’: the horns of a juvenile buffalo, the tail of a horse, the beard of a goat, and a sloped, hyena-like back. Definitely a strange looking dude!

NOTES: https://www.sabisabi.com/ I just discovered that the wildebeest has the honor of being the only animal on the Ugly 5 AND the Stupid 5 list. I’ll get to that list soon! © Jadi Campbell 2026. All photos © Uwe Hartmann. To see more of Uwe’s animal photos and pics from our trips go to viewpics.de.

Follow this link for my books.

Meet The Ugly 5. #1 Spotted Hyena

Rosalind: I will laugh like a hyen, and that when thou art inclined to sleep.” As You Like It, IV. i. 147-9. – William Shakespeare

The goal of everyone who goes on safari is to spot The Big 5: lion, elephant, leopard, rhinoceros, and Cape buffalo. It took us 3 tries to see them all, but in January this year we finally did it!

Less famous (or looked-for) are The Ugly 5. Uwe and I have spotted every single one over time. And yes, they are UGLY. It is my great pleasure to introduce you to them, one at a time….

First up is the spotted hyena. They like grasslands and open terrain. From our tent in the Serengeti, in the middle of the night I heard them laughing hysterically. The spotted hyena is chatty!

a mud bath. Because he’s not filthy enough yet

following the Great Migration and hoping something gets killed soon

Unlike most hyenas, the spotted hyena is a social animal and hunts in packs, probably because they follow migrating animals.

When they do their own hunting, spotted hyenas kill with their teeth and not their claws. They take care of other animals’ leftovers with those sharp teeth (and lack of compunction about eating something that’s clearly been dead for ages). As Wikipedia describes them, “Spotted hyenas evolved sharp carnassials behind their crushing premolars, therefore they did not need to wait for their prey to die, and thus became pack hunters as well as scavengers.” [1]

Along with bats, the spotted hyena is one of the very few creatures that can survive a rabies infection. Their diet of rotting meat gives them powerful concentrations of antibodies in their saliva.

Our safari guide told us that lions only eat meat. The hyenas then move in. They’re able to completely digest the organic matter found in bones, and their skulls and teeth are specialized to crack large bones and cut through animal hides.

Along with the hyenas come the carrion birds – two more of the Ugly Five. You’ll meet them soon.

NOTES: [1] wiki/Hyena; The Hyena Family © Jadi Campbell 2026. All photos © Uwe Hartmann. To see more of Uwe’s animal photos and pics from our trips go to viewpics.de.

Follow this link for Amazon.com.

Tag: The Ugly 5

Meet The Ugly 5. #3 Maribou Stork

Like this:

Meet The Ugly 5. #2 The Wildebeest

Like this:

Meet The Ugly 5. #1 Spotted Hyena

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: