Hoofed animals and large herbivores abroad and while traveling: are they dangerous, where do you encounter them, where can you see them?
What is a hoofed animal?
- Hoofed animals are animals with hooves, meaning they walk on their fingers and toes, and not on their hands and feet. Hoofed animals are herbivores, and many species are herd animals.
- Although biologists no longer use the term 'hoofed animals' due to genetic diversity, it remains a useful umbrella term for travelers. 'Large grazers' is also a description commonly used for this group of animals.
- Hoofed animals you might encounter while traveling: horses, donkeys, rhinoceroses, zebras (all odd-toed ungulates), antelopes, buffaloes, hippos, pigs, camels, alpacas, giraffes, elk, and deer (all even-toed ungulates).
Are hoofed animals dangerous?
- Most hoofed animals are more inclined to flee than to fight when they encounter a human. However, some can indeed be dangerous to humans. For example, when hippos, rhinos, and buffaloes feel threatened, they can become life-threatening. This happens most often when they have young.
- Collisions between hoofed animals and cars are dangerous for both humans and animals. The moose is particularly notorious because, due to its build with long legs, a collision often results in the animal’s full weight crashing onto the windshield and into the vehicle's occupants.
- Read more on the pages about the different animals.
Where can you see hoofed animals abroad, and where is the best place to go to see them?
- Hoofed animals form such a diverse group of animals that you can actually encounter them on every continent except Antarctica.
- The savannas of East Africa are known as the hotspot for seeing many species of hoofed animals, such as antelopes and wildebeest, particularly during the 'Great Migration'.
- In South America, four camellids that are all known for spitting can be found: the llama, the alpaca, the vicuña, and the guanaco.
- Large herds of caribou and reindeer from Northern Europe and North America are also spectacular hoofed animals to encounter in the wild.
- The moose is impressively large and can be found in the north of North America, Scandinavia, Russia, Poland, and the Baltic states, particularly in water-rich forest areas.
- Read more on the pages about the different animals and where best to go to see hoofed animals and herbivores abroad.
Where can you work, volunteer, or intern with hoofed animals and herbivores abroad?
- When you work in agriculture or livestock farming in, for example, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Norway, or France, you also work a lot with or even on hoofed animals.
- Working with wild hoofed animals can primarily take the form of observation, research, and the care of injured animals in Africa, for example in South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Namibia.
- Read more on the pages about the different animals you could work with:
