LARGE HERBIVORES OF BOTSWANA

Elephant
Loxodonta africana
Botswana's elephant population is the largest of any country in Africa - well over 100,000 of them, most of them living in the northern regions of Chobe and along the Linyanti river.  Elephants are also found throughout the Okavango Delta, but not in the same huge numbers as further north.  The winter months of June - October are the best time to see them and some of the camps with superb elephant viewing include Kings Pool, DumaTau, Savuti Camp and Selinda Camp.

Another excellent way to see and interact with elephants is to visit a camp which provides elephant-back safaris or walking with semi-domesticated herds in the wild.  Abu Camp in the western Okavango offers a superb elephant-back safari experience for several days of riding and living with the herd.  Baines' Camp and Stanley's Camp offer a similar experience of interaction.

Elephants live in a matriarchal society, with herds consisting of related females and their young.  Bulls leave their mothers and the herd at sexual maturity to roam singly or with other males.  Male elephants join the herds only to mate or on occasion just to feed and or bathe; otherwise they live separately. 

Mature male elephants enter an annual period of heightened testosterone levels called "musth" whereby they become aggressive and look to mate, if possible.  Female elephants have a gestation period of 22 months and are fertile for only 2 days every four years on average.  The rest of the time they are either pregnant or raising an un-weaned calf.

Elephants communicate via infra sound (low frequency sound waves) at levels mostly below the range of human hearing.  This communication can occur over vast distances depending upon weather and terrain. 

They are the largest land mammal on earth, with adult males averaging 5000-6000 kilograms and over 3 meters in height.  An adult will consume 50 tons of food in a year and they spend up to 75% of their lives feeding.  They have excellent senses of smell and hearing, but only moderate eyesight. 

Elephants can obviously be very dangerous to man, but it is typically only the individuals in a breeding herd, and especially the adult females which will charge a vehicle or attack humans perceived to be a threat to their young.  Adult males are for more likely to give a "mock charge" whereby they stop and shake their heads without actually following through.

Elephants have been proved to be quite intelligent, with long memories and they also appear to be aware of death (like humans).  Some research has suggested that elephants are actually self-aware.

Hippopotamus
Hippopotamus amphibius
Botswana's second largest mammal is the hippopotamus, with males attaining a body mass of 1600-3000 kilograms and females averaging 1400 kilograms.  A hippo must have fresh water deep enough to submerge in and nearby grasslands to make its home.  A hippos skin, which is very thin and has no sweat glands, loses moisture at a high rate and thus a hippo out of the water in hot weather will risk dehydration.  It is for this reason that hippos have adapted to a life spending their days mainly in the water and feeding on grasslands only at night.

They typically leave the water just after sunset along well-worn trails formed by their nightly feeding forays.  Hippos may travel many kilometers during their nightly feeds and return to the water in the morning after feeding on grass through the night.

Although hippos were hunted relentlessly and their populations depleted to near extinction in southern Africa, today they are protected in much of their range and they are found throughout the Okavango Delta and in the rivers along Botswana's northern borders.  Safari camps with excellent hippo viewing opportunities include Kings Pool Camp, DumaTau Camp in the Linyanti region, permanent water camps in the Okavango like Xigera Camp and Vumbura Camp, and camps along the Chobe River including Chobe Game Lodge and Muchenje Safari Lodge.

Hippos can hold their breath for several minutes and they sometimes surprise boaters when they surface from below with a blast of breath and water spray.  A hippo's characteristic head-back, wide-open-mouth yawning is actually a threat display designed to advertise its huge lower teeth set.  Hippos on land can also be extremely dangerous.  Although they may appear slow and clumsy, they can actually run quite quickly, far faster than a human, and people are killed by hippos in surprisingly high numbers.  The locals have learned to respect these animals and one should never get between a hippo and its watery home as this is when most attacks occur.

Buffalo
Syncerus caffer
The buffalo is one of Africa's most impressive animals, with a huge body, a solid and impressive set of massive horns, and an aggressive nature when cornered or wounded.  These animals live in large herds numbering from a couple hundred up to many thousand in some places and the large, mature bulls of the herd will defend other members if they come under attack.

Adult bulls can weigh in at 1500 pounds while females are slightly smaller.  In terms of predation, only lions and occasionally hyenas can kill a full grown animal, but calves are frequently taken, in spite of the buffalo's protective nature.

In Botswana, buffalos account for the highest biomass in the Okavango Delta, but they also range widely and there are large populations in Chobe and in the Linyanti region of northern Botswana.  Buffalo are bulk grazers and can feed on grasses too tall or coarse for other ruminants, which gives them an advantage and is partially responsible for their great success among the African mammals.

Buffalo prefer habitats with dense cover like reed beds and forested thickets and many parts of Botswana are ideal for them.  They also love water and are often seen wallowing.  Buffalo are at their most active at night when they do much of their feeding, and also at dawn and dusk when they head to water to drink.  During the midday, they tend to rest in thick cover.

In Botswana, the best place to see large herds of buffalo are at Duba Plains Camp.  Other camps which also get nice herds are Vumbura Camp, Mombo Camp and Chitabe Camp.  Smaller herds are also commonly seen in the Linyanti and in Chobe.

Giraffe
Giraffa camelopardalis
The giraffe is the world's tallest animal, with males attaining a height of up to 5.5 meters and females 4 to 4.5 meters.  The giraffe's height allow it to feed from a 2-meter zone on of trees unavailable to other browsers. In addition, with its long, prehensile tongue, it is able to be very selective whenever new leaves, pods and flowers are available.

Another advantage of a giraffe's height is the ability to communicate with other members of the herd and to detect danger.  When attacked by lions or hyena, which are the only predators able to successfully kill it, a giraffe will defend itself by kicking out with its extremely powerful forelegs.  A giraffe is most vulnerable when drinking, when its splayed-legged and awkward stance make it extremely vulnerable to attack.

Giraffes live in a herd but do not group closely together; rather, they form loose herds and generally feed apart from one another.  A herd of twenty giraffes may be spread out over a distance of 1 kilometer or more.  However, females are rarely found alone, except when guarding a newborn baby.  In general, giraffe associations are very fluid and adult bulls are often seen alone or sometimes in bachelor groups.

Giraffes are quite common in the Okavango, Linyanti and Chobe ecosystems.  Some of the better camps for giraffe are Vumbura Camp, Mombo Camp, and along the Linyanti river near DumaTau Camp.

White Rhinoceros
Ceratotherium simum
Like most areas in Africa, Botswana's rhinoceros have been shot out ruthlessly by sport hunters and poachers ever since the early Colonial days of the 1800's.  In Botswana, the last handful of white rhinos were finally captured and put into protective custody by the government in the 1980's.  The black rhino has long been extinct at that time.

Early in 2002, the white rhino was reintroduced into the Moremi Game Reserve at Mombo Camp as part of a joint program between Wilderness Safaris and Botswana's Department of Wildlife and National Parks.  As of mid 2005, there are now more than 40 wild-roaming white rhinos and 4 calves have been born since the reintroduction.  The rhinos are closely monitored by anti-poaching patrols and each rhino has a transmitter inserted into its horn (painlessly) before being released.  Botswana's dedication to protecting its wild resources is no more evident than it has been with this project.  Chief's Camp in the Moremi Reserve is another excellent place to see the white rhino.

Read background on the Botswana Rhino Project and on rhino reintroduction's.

The white rhino is not actually named for its color; rather the name is derived from the Afrikaans name "Witrenoster", which refers to the wide lips of this species (the black rhino has a prehensile and hooked upper lip).

The white rhino is the second largest land mammal after the elephant, with males weighing up to 2200 kg and females averaging 1600 kg.  This species has 2 times the bulk of the black rhino, its wide, square mouth is perfectly adapted to grazing efficiently on dense stands of short, green grasses. 

Adult bulls are basically solitary and only associate with cows when the female is in estrus.  Unlike males though, females and adolescents are rarely found alone and typically are found in pairs - usually a female with her most recent offspring, but sometimes a pair of calf-less females.  White rhinos are almost completely predation-proof, with only a few reports ever made.  Calves are sometimes vulnerable to lions or hyenas but the mother-baby bond is extremely strong and a mother rhinoceros is a very formidable protector.  Unfortunately, the rhino's main enemy, man, has done more than a little damage to this lovely animal.

Black Rhinoceros
Dicros bicornis
The black rhinoceros, like its cousin the white rhino, was once widely distributed throughout southern Africa, but it too was poached to near or complete extinction in much of its original range, including in Botswana.  As part of the recent Rhino Reintroduction Programme (see more above under White rhino section), there are now a handful of black rhinos running wild in Botswana's Okavango Delta, with plans for future releases in the works.

The black rhino is smaller than the white rhino, attaining a maximum weight of 1300 kg, with females only slightly smaller.  This rhino has a flexible and triangular, hooked upper lip which is used for grasping bushes and other shrubs.  The black rhino is a nearly pure browser with a preference for leguminous plant.  It can go several days without drinking if there are succulent plants for it to chew; however, they prefer to drink daily.

Females are seldom found alone and even dominant bulls will often be found in the company of another bull as long as it is submissive.  However, their temperament is slightly more high-strung than the white rhino, and meetings of 2 black rhinos may be filled with tension and aggression.

Eland
Taurotragus oryx
The eland is the largest of the antelopes and adult males can reach 900 kg.  They are a shy, gregarious species and are highly adaptable, being equally at home in acacia, savanna, floodplains, sub-desert and mountainous regions.

These beautiful animals are normally silent and have an acute sense of smell and very good hearing.  They are mainly browsers but have a widely varied diet of fruits, pods, seeds, tubers, herbs, and almost any type of edible bush or small tree leaves.  They will also graze on fresh grasses.  Eland can also go indefinitely without drinking, gathering all needed moisture from their food.

Eland are non-territorial and nomadic, sometimes ranging over very large distances.  They also form very large herds where their populations are larger, with herds over 100 being common in some areas.

The eland is not common in either the Okavango or Linyanti regions, they are seen regularly in the Central Kalahari region and also in Chobe National Park.