Botswana — Media Gallery

Fiery sunset on the Okavango Delta (also called the Okavango Swamp), the world's largest inland delta. The Okavango River empties as a swamp in a basin of the Kalahari Desert where, through the processes of evaporation and transpiration (water given off by plants), it disappears. Most of the islands in the delta began as termite mounds. The delta is home for a wide variety of birds and animals.

Area comparison map

A female impala at Chobe National Park.

Kudus on the move at Chobe National Park.

Grazing hippopotamus at Chobe National Park.

Adult elephants are very protective and caring of their young.

Elephants are known for their intelligence. These two are hanging out in the shade to escape the scorching midday sun.

A giraffe in Chobe National Park.

Elephant on the move at Chobe National Park, Botswana's first national park and also its most biologically diverse. Located in the north of the country, it has one of the greatest concentrations of game in all of Africa.

A curious baby elephant approaches a safari vehicle.

A contented male lion following a big meal.

A colony of marabou storks at Chobe National Park.

A vigilant female lion in Chobe National Park.

A male impala browsing at Chobe National Park.

A large herd of impala in Chobe National Park.

Elephants at a water hole in Chobe National Park.

A small pride of lions saunters down a dirt road.

A male impala guards a small herd of females in Chobe National Park. Impala have distinctive dark tufts on their lower hind legs. Only the males have horns which take on a lyre-like shape.

Safari lodge at Chobe National Park.

Marabou storks at Chobe National Park.

Grazing elephants in Chobe National Park.

A giraffe on the move across the veld.

A perching lilac-breasted roller.

Following a large meal, lions can enter a semi-stupor state and just want to rest.

A resting but wary leopard.

Like a watercolor in which a brushstroke of dark green has bled into a damp spot on the paper, the Okavango River spreads across the pale, parched landscape of northern Botswana to become the lush Okavango Delta - the largest inland delta in the world. This false-color satellite image shows where the river empties into a basin in the Kalahari Desert, creating a maze of lagoons, channels, and islands where vegetation flourishes, even in the dry season, and wildlife abounds. The delta originally fed into an ancient, now-dry Lake Makgadikgadi. Image courtesy of USGS.