The wildlife of Botswana refers to the flora and fauna of this country. Botswana is around 90% covered in savanna, varying from shrub savanna in the southwest in the dry areas to tree savanna consisting of trees and grass in the wetter areas. Even under the hot conditions of the Kalahari Desert, many species survive; in fact the country has more than 2500 species of plants and 650 species of trees. Vegetation and its wild fruits are also extremely important to rural populations living in the desert and are the principal source of food, fuel and medicine for many inhabitants.
Three national parks and seven game reserves stretch over 17% of Botswana's land area. The three national parks are the Chobe National Park, the Nxai Pan and Makgadikgadi National Park and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. The seven game reserves are the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Gaborone Game Reserve, Khutse Game Reserve, Mannyelanong Game Reserve, Maun Game Reserve and Moremi Game Reserve. In addition, a number of small privately owned reserves are maintained.
Geography
The Kalahari Desert, which extends on its western borders into South Africa, Namibia and Angola, is a flat terrain, which covers about 84% of Botswana, known by the epithet "thirstland". It is in fact covered by shrubland vegetation of trees, grasslands, scrub and thorny bushes. Apart from scattered hills and valleys, the dunes system of the southern part contains pans that fill with water during the rains, sustaining the wildlife with its nutrients and grasses.
National parks and wildlife reserves
Chobe National Park
Chobe National Park, with its four ecosystems, is known for its largest wildlife concentration in Africa and extends over an area of . Initially established as a reserve area in 1960 became the first gazetted national park in 1967. Chobe River valley forms the northeast part of the park and has thick forests and lush green plains. The marshland of Savuti forms the western zone. The hinterland is hemmed between the marshland of Savuti on the west and the Linyanti Swamps on its northwest. San people or the Basarwa were the original inhabitants of this land who were hunter gatherers. The park's elephant population is the largest in Botswana, and the animals' seasonal migratory route covers between the Chobe and Linyanti rivers. The body size of the elephants here is the largest. However, their ivory is brittle and their tusks are generally short. Some of the other faunal species seen here are sable, wildebeest, kudu, buffalo and waterbuck, apart from lion, hyena, jackal, bat-eared fox, cheetah and wild dogs. Also more than 500 bird species have been recorded in Chobe National Park.
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (KTP), a transboundary park between Botswana and South Africa, was the first conservation area to be set in the southern Kalahari Desert in May 2000. Out of a total area of , Botswana has control over while the balance is with South Africa. Two ecological zones of savannahs and grasslands of Africa in semi-arid environment, with least anthropological pressure, are represented here by ungulates and large carnivores mammals. The rich faunal and floral diversity has involved several research projects. Its approach from Goborone involves road travel over a distance of .
Makgadikgadi and Nxai National Park The Makgadikgadi and Nxai National Park, which cover a large area of were established in the 1970s. They have complementarity in wild life migrations, which necessitated merging the two parks into a single entity. It has the pans of Ntwetwe, Makgadikgadi, Nxai, Baines' Baobabs and Kudiakam.
Moremi Game Reserve Moremi Game Reserve is situated on the eastern side of the Okavango Delta and was named after Chief Moremi of the BaTawana tribe. Moremi was designated as a game reserve, rather than a national park, when it was created. This designation meant that the BaSarwa or Bushmen that lived there were allowed to stay in the reserve.
Khutse Game Reserve Khutse Game Reserve established in 1971, covering an area of in Bakwena tribal land, has undulating topography of the bush savanna vegetation. It is sparsely populated due to poor water sources and wild life in the mineralised pan system within Khutse has been their major source of sustenance. The wild life of herbivore thrived on grass growing in the pans which in turn has attracted predators.
Central Kalahari Game Reserve The Central Kalahari Game Reserve, the second largest reserve in Botswana covering an area of , is a habitat of open plains, salt pans and riverbeds. It has wooded mopane forests in the south and east. The indigenous people residing here since ancient times are known as bushmen or the Basarwa or San. Its fame is also due to its Deception Valley where the study of brown hyena (Parahyaena brunnea) has been carried out. Deception was the name given to the salt pans of the valley, which gave deceptive sight (mirage) of a water body from a distance. Tree Island used to be the main camping ground here. Cry of the Kalahari, a famous book made this a popular place. Wild animals such as giraffe, brown hyena, warthog, wild dog, cheetah, leopard, lion, blue wildebeest, eland, gemsbok, kudu, red hartebeest and springbok are seen in the pans and valleys, particularly during the period from December to April.
Communal and private game reserves
Khama Rhino Sanctuary Khama Rhino Sanctuary was established in 1992, covering of Kalahari sandveld with Serwe Pan, primarily to protect the rhinos which at that time was listed subject to poaching causing fears of extinction. A community trust was established to protect the black and white rhino species left in the area. There are also 30 other animal species found in this area as well as over 250 bird species. There are many activities that can be taken place while at Khama Rhino Sanctuary these include, game drives, nature walks and rhino tracking. The sanctuary is a community trust governed by a board of trustees who are elected from the local communities of Serowe, Paje and . The President of Botswana, Seretse Khama Ian Khama, Paramount Chief of the Bamangwato, is patron of the trust.
Mokolodi Park Mokolodi Park spreads over a area, is a park maintained by the Mokolodi Wildlife Foundation, a private organization, near Gaborone. Its ecosystem has, as result of restocking efforts, witnessed proliferation of many species of wildlife like white rhino, cheetah, mountain reedbuck, giraffe, zebra, red hartebeest, sable, gemsbok, which coexists along with the indigenous fauna such as kudu, impala, hyena, leopard and water buck. The park is developed as nature reserve with extensive network of jeepable (4x4) paths, which permits viewing the wild life at close quarters. The park administration is planning to expand its limits of conservation area up to the Lion Park opposite to Crocodile Pools.
Northern Tuli Game Reserve The Northern Tuli Game Reserve is a private reserve covering an area of made up of savannah plains, riverine forests, open marshland and rugged outcrops of sandstone. It is the largest private reserve in Southern Africa. It has the largest elephant population in the world. In addition, more than 350 species of birds have been reported here. Other fauna of Botswana are also commonly found here.
Wildlife management areas Wildlife management areas (WMAs) are areas where wildlife utilization is controlled by law. The WMAs often function as buffer areas around wildlife reserves, since most wildlife populations spend extended periods outside of the sanctuaries. The concept was developed in the 1980s. Its purpose is to prevent transformation of land, where wildlife is used commercially, into agricultural land, where wild animals are persecuted or even eradicated. Proposals have been made for 12 WMAs, one of them was rejected by district authorities.Parry, DC* & Campbell, B. (1990). "Wildlife management areas of Botswana". Botswana Notes & Records, 22 (1), 65-77.
Flora In Botswana forest cover is around 27% of the total land area, equivalent to of forest in 2020, down from in 1990. In 2020, naturally regenerating forest covered , of the naturally regenerating forest 0% was reported to be primary forest (consisting of native tree species with no clearly visible indications of human activity) and around 11% of the forest area was found within protected areas. For the year 2015, 24% of the forest area was reported to be under public ownership and 76% private ownership.
Floral diversity of vegetation in Botswana, which receives only an average annual rainfall of about only, is generally defined under three broad heads namely, hardveld, sandveld and Okavango deltaveld which show seasonal difference in its nutrition value, with woody plants recording higher values compared to the grasses; Panicum has recorded more nutritional content during the rainy season.
Hardveld vegetation consists of woody plants and grasses. The woody plants are; Acacia karroo, Albizia anthelmintica, Balanites aegyptiaca, Mopane (Colophospermum mopane), Combretum apiculatum, Grewia bicolor, Grewia flavecens, Grewia monticola, Lonchocarpus capassa and Terminalia.
Sandveld of the Kalahari desert's vegetation expanse consists of grasses, namely Kragrostis pallens, Striagostis uniplumis, Anthephora pubescens, Schmidtia pappophoreides and Megaloprotachne albescens. Woody plants recorded are the Grewia avellana, Grewia retinervis, Lonchocarpus nelsii and Terminalia sericia.
Okavango deltaveld has both grasses and woody plants. The woody plants are the Ficus verruculosa and the Hyphaene crinata. The grasses reported are the Phragmites communis, Dichanthium papillusum, Panicum repens, Andropogon encomus, Echinochloa pyramidalis and Imperata cylindrica.
Ninety percent of Botswana is savanna. Small areas of forest exist, but only in the far north along the Chobe River. Gruff shrubland tends to grow in the dryer desert areas, whilst trees tend to grow in the swamps, particularly in the Okavango delta which have access to more water to thrive. Botswana is home to over 2500 species of plants and over 650 species of trees.
Trees Common trees are the mopane, baobab, marula, acacia, camel thorn, motopi (shepherd's tree), wild date palm, papyrus, sycamore fig tree, real fan palm, African mangosteen and the sausage tree. The trees tend to grow in areas with a plentiful supply of water, such as in the Okavango Delta swamps.
The baobab tree, known as mowana in the Setswana language are some of the long living trees in Botswana and may grow older than 2000 years. The bark is characteristically pinkish-grey in color, with a shiny tint. Large white flowers, averaging about 12 cm across and appear between October and December, whilst the greyish-brown fruits which average about 24 cm in length appear in April–May.
The marula or morula tree, belonging to the mango family Anacardiaceae, grows to an average of (and up to ) in the Okavango Delta in bushveld and woodland, and has a greyish bark and is deciduous. From January to July, the leaves are grey-green but eventually turn pale yellow and fall off in the latter part of the year during the winter. During the summer months the trees exhibit round to oval fruit, rich in Vitamin C, with a thick peel covering white slippery pulp, which like the leaves turns increasingly yellow at the end of the blooming season. It also bears flowers, pinkish with male and red-purple and white with female.; the male tends to be larger and borne on sparse drooping racemes.