Wildlife of Botswana
[2] 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.
[4] 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".
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.
[5] Chobe National Park, with its four ecosystems, is known for its largest wildlife concentration in Africa and extends over an area of 10,566 square kilometres (4,080 sq mi).
The park's elephant population is the largest in Botswana, and the animals' seasonal migratory route covers 200 kilometres (120 mi) between the Chobe and Linyanti rivers.
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.
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.
Khutse Game Reserve established in 1971, covering an area of 2,500 square kilometres (970 sq mi) in Bakwena tribal land, has undulating topography of the bush savanna vegetation.
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.
[18] Floral diversity of vegetation in Botswana, which receives only an average annual rainfall of about 450 millimetres (18 in) 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.
[19] Sandveld of the Kalahari desert's vegetation expanse consists of grasses, namely Kragrostis pallens, Striagostis uniplumis, Anthephora pubescens, Schmidtia pappophoreides and Megaloprotachne albescens.
The grasses reported are the Phragmites communis, Dichanthium papillusum, Panicum repens, Andropogon encomus, Echinochloa pyramidalis and Imperata cylindrica.
[2] 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.
[20] During the summer months the trees exhibit round to oval fruit, rich in Vitamin C,[3] with a thick peel covering white slippery pulp, which like the leaves turns increasingly yellow at the end of the blooming season.
The palm, an evergreen, tends to reach a height of around 6 metres (20 ft) and grows in abundance in the swamps in Botswana, along with the papyrus.
The leaves typically grow to about 3–4 metres (9.8–13.1 ft) in length with some soft basal leaflets and others which are dark green and rough in appearance.
[20] The deciduous water-thriving African mangosteen in Botswana can grow up to 18 metres (59 ft) in height, identifiable by its bare, evenly sectioned yellowish-grey stem which stands out against its dense, very dark crown.
The fruit which the tree bears is oval and of a pinky-orange color, about 2.5 centimetres (0.98 in) in diameter on average and appears from November to February.
[20] The mmilo tree, the species Vangueria infausta of the family Rubiaceae grows is a small deciduous shrub occurring in wooded grassland and bushveld, particular in rocky areas.
It exhibits a yellowish-brown drupe, subglobose edible fruit, up to 35 millimetres (1.4 in) in diameter of which the seed is often obtained to create a dish called nchwachwa during the dry winter season.
[20] The bark is grey and smooth in younger trees and may exhibit leaves up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long and dark red to maroon cup-shaped flowers measuring 15 by 15 cm, which bloom in August to October.
[citation needed] The twelve important ornithological sites selected in Botswana of which seven are wetlands and which are recognized and supported by the BirdLife International known for their bird life cover more than 25% of the land surface of the country.
It encompasses an area of 230 square kilometres (89 sq mi) and maintained as a community project to preserve its 165 bird species.
There are also four introduced species: Cornu aspersum, Lissachatina fulica, Physella acuta and Radix auricularia, which are potentially invasive and of economic concern.
[30] Moremi Game Reserve, established in 1965 and expanded over the years and now covering an area of 4,871 square kilometres (1,881 sq mi), it is the habitat of mopane woodland and acacia forests, floodplains and lagoons.
