CULTUREFOCUS: Wildlife pictures from the Okavango Delta, Botswana.

THE MIRACLE OF WATER

Rain-fed streams in the Angola highlands merge to form a river that flows south to reach Botswana as the Okavango. But this is a river that through a trick of geology is destined never to reach the sea. Instead, its waters sprawl out to form a vast inland delta that is one of the world's greatest wetlands. The Okavango Delta is a watery Eden of more than 15,000 square kilometers that gives life in abundance to the heart of the arid Botswana Kalahari.

An oasis in a thirsty desert

Most of the Kalahari in southern Africa is an expansive semi-desert of ancient sands and dry savanna. The Okavango Delta in Botswana provides a dramatic contrast by flooding the heart of the thirsty Kalahari with life-giving water. In this sprawling oasis, desert gives way to lush vegetation and a rich ecosystem is able to exist in the midst of one of the harshest regions in the world.

An Okavango lion. No animal in Africa can be as evocative, or inspire as much awe, as these predators.

African fish eagles are a magnificent sight as they hunt over the Okavango waters.

A young elephant bathes in the Okavango Delta. Elephants not only need water, but seem to enjoy it.

Male impala

Inquisitive kudu

The delta attracts flocks of water birds like these yellow-billed stork and saddle-billed stork.

The waters of the Okavango Delta fan out into a maze of channels that meander between forested islands. The waters wind through dense beds of papyrus into marshes and lagoons that are festooned with water lilies. The delta is a haven for wildlife that is attracted and sustained by the year-round abundance of water.

Red lechwe are water-loving antelopes that can bound into the Okavango marshes to escape predators.

A stronghold for lions

Lions prey on the herbivores that graze in the Okavango Delta. North Botswana is now one of the last remaining major strongholds for the big cats that sit at the top of the carnivore pecking order. But although these predators invoke both fascination and fear, they have lost most of their ancient territories in Africa at the hands of man.

This part of northern Botswana hosts one of the largest migrations of zebra in Africa.

Oxpeckers hitch a ride on a Burchell's zebra.

A haven for elephants

Humans have decimated elephants across much of Africa. Thankfully, huge herds can still be seen in the area of northern Botswana that encompasses the Okavango Delta and adjoining Chobe National Park. For more pictures of the elephants that still roam northern Botswana...

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MORE PICTURES... Okavango Delta \| Elephants of Chobe
		Botswana THE OKAVANGO DELTA Pictures of wildlife in one of the world's great wetlands