National Parks in Botswana
With a size of more than 500,000 km², only two million people live in this neighboring country of South Africa. Hardly any country on Earth is more sparsely populated than Botswana. The vegetation in the country is very diverse.
In the southern part of the country, the Kalahari semi-desert dominates, while the north is crisscrossed by rivers that give life. To protect the untouched wildlife, the country has done a lot for nature conservation and established several national parks.
The Chobe National Park
The Chobe National Park was designated Botswana's first official protected area in 1967. It is located in the far north of the country and borders the neighboring countries Angola and Namibia. For a long time, conservationists from all over the world have been advocating for a transboundary national park. In the future, the Chobe National Park is set to become part of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, a protected area that will span five countries. The park is named after the Chobe River. Large herds of African buffalo and elephants are native to the banks of the Chobe. Over 100,000 elephants live in the national park. Other rivers flow through the park, such as the Savuti River. The waterways form the lifeline for numerous animal and plant species in this protected area.
The Nxai Pan National Park
The namesake of this park is a metal pole that locals used to dig up springhares, which are widespread in this region. The national park is dotted with dried-up salt lakes that fill with water again in rainy years. The area lies on a migration route of various animal herds and directly between the Chobe National Park and the Makgadikgadi Pans National Park. In the past, farmers used the migration route to drive their herds through the country. In order to control foot-and-mouth disease in the 1970s, this route was eventually closed. Since 1992, the protected area has been officially designated as a national park.
Makgadikgadi Pans National Park
In the language of the local tribes, this park is referred to as "dead land." Large, dry salt lakes and few water sources are characteristic of the national park, which has never been inhabited by humans. The only river in the region is the Boteti River, which provides a habitat for elephants, giraffes and hippopotamuses. During the rainy season, when the dry lakes fill with water, the national park is visited by huge herds of animals. During the day, it gets very hot in this area, while at night temperatures can drop below freezing.
The Kalahari Gemsbok National Park
With an area of 10,000 km², the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park is Botswana's largest national park. For many decades, it has been part of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park, which connects parks across South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. This national park has existed in the southern part of the country for over 80 years; old windmills from the time of its founding still shape the park's appearance today. They were built in the 1930s and still supply important water in an otherwise very dry and water-scarce region.
