https://www.nature.org/en-us/magazine/magazine-articles/okavango-delta-african-oasis/
To safeguard the Okavango Delta, one of the largest wetlands in the world, TNC is starting at the source.
At the height of Botswana’s six-month dry season, rainwater from Angola’s lush highlands spills into the heart of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa, setting in motion an ecological spectacle unlike anywhere else on Earth. With the influx of 2.5 trillion gallons of water, the Okavango Delta—a permanent swamp surrounded by one of the continent’s driest expanses—doubles in size. Fueled by the promise of a fertile floodplain, some 200,000 large mammals return to the delta, now an oasis roughly half the size of Massachusetts.
The floodwaters usher in more than 700 species of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles. African fish eagles soar above prides of lions and the continent’s largest population of savanna elephants. Wild dogs prowl through thorn scrub as cheetahs stalk warthogs and wetland antelopes. Hippos and Nile crocodiles lurk among reeds and papyrus. The delta hums with life for several months until the floodwaters evaporate or recede into the red desert sands.
To safeguard the Okavango Delta, one of the largest wetlands in the world, TNC is starting at the source.
At the height of Botswana’s six-month dry season, rainwater from Angola’s lush highlands spills into the heart of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa, setting in motion an ecological spectacle unlike anywhere else on Earth. With the influx of 2.5 trillion gallons of water, the Okavango Delta—a permanent swamp surrounded by one of the continent’s driest expanses—doubles in size. Fueled by the promise of a fertile floodplain, some 200,000 large mammals return to the delta, now an oasis roughly half the size of Massachusetts.
The floodwaters usher in more than 700 species of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles. African fish eagles soar above prides of lions and the continent’s largest population of savanna elephants. Wild dogs prowl through thorn scrub as cheetahs stalk warthogs and wetland antelopes. Hippos and Nile crocodiles lurk among reeds and papyrus. The delta hums with life for several months until the floodwaters evaporate or recede into the red desert sands.
