Tag: buffalo

Wildlife in the Okavango

We camped in The Okavango Delta for three days, which means three days of two game walks at six hours a day. We saw a lot of wildlife in those walks. No animals came and visited us at camp, which would have been exciting but also scary, so I guess we got lucky with all the wildlife in the Okavango.

The Okavango Delta

Located in northwest Botswana, The Okavango Delta is an interior wetland and a UNESCO site. Most deltas drain into seas, but the Okavango uniquely drains into the Kalahari Desert. The world’s largest inland delta, it encompasses 16,000 square miles.

The nearest city and airport is Maun, which is where we flew in and out before our safari. Botswana is 224,000 square meters and features other amazing places to see wild animals, like Chobe National Park, in the northeast of the country.

Wildlife of the Okavango

While in the Okavango, we got to walk quite close to a lot of animals, and we had the zoom lens on the camera to capture more. While we didn’t see cats like we did in Kruger, we saw hippos, buffalo, wildebeest, different kinds of antelope, wart hogs (*COOL!), and giraffes on the last day. We also saw a ton of different kinds of birds: eagles, open bills, pelicans, geese and more. If you want to read about the birds of the Okavango, I’ve got you covered.

Giraffe Okavango Delta
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Spotting the Big Five in Kruger Park

Before I went to Kruger National Park – my first ever safari experience – I was excited to see ANY wild animals. I had heard of “The Big 5” but wasn’t even sure which animals were labelled within that group. We learned from a guide during one of the organized walks that this term originally comes from hunters. As a result, hunters considered the biggest animals the most important for their trophy cases and thus the Big 5 designation was created. We tried to spot the Big five in Kruger Park, with some success.

It is a goal for many safari goers to see all of “The Big 5.” While this wasn’t my goal, the whole park experience pushes that as a priority. Each campsite has a couple of boards where people can mark their daily sightings of these most wanted wild animals, plus some other rare and interesting animals. Except the rhino. Due to these beautiful animals being close to extinction, the park will not advertise sightings of rhinoceros as a way to protect them against poachers. Because of this, a rhino sighting is a tough find.

For the most part, we drove around, did a couple of game walks in the bush, and just enjoyed our sightings of all the animals and birds. But in the back of our minds, especially as the days passed, we did still hope to see all of the Big Five.

Here’s a rundown on our Big Five sightings in Kruger National Park:

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Kruger Park Animal Crossings

Kruger National Park in South Africa is a wonderful place. If you like the outdoors and wild animals, this is already on your list to visit, or should be. I just spent 6 days and 5 nights there and am compiling all the photos, videos and stories for future posts! My first post is about Kruger Park animal crossings.

Driving Kruger Park

One of the unique things about Kruger National Park is that visitors drive along the roads looking for wild animals. The park is the animals’ home so humans are not supposed to walk around except in camps or with guides. Drive slowly so you don’t miss an animal, and so you don’t miss a car suddenly stopping in front of you because the driver has just seen an animal! Sometimes you don’t even need to look for animals, because they just decide to cross the road immediately in front of you.

Here are a few examples of animal crossings in Kruger National Park last week:

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