Expedition 🇧🇼
Botswana
Meerkats on sentinel duty, elephants in the Okavango, and some of Africa's wildest dry-country wildlife.
8 species to spot
Wildlife overview
Botswana is southern Africa at its most pristine, a country of Kalahari desert, salt pans, and the Okavango Delta flooding into the sands. Wildlife here is adapted to arid beauty: meerkat mobs at burrow entrances, elephants wading delta channels, and lions on the Savuti marsh.
For collectors, Botswana offers intimate desert encounters, from habituated meerkat groups that film crews have made famous to vast unfenced wilderness that feels like Africa before fences.
Popular discoveries
- 01
Meerkat: The desert sentinel, a small mongoose that stands upright on hind legs, scanning the Kalahari sky while its family digs for scorpions below.
- 02
Hippopotamus: The river horse, a two-tonne wall of muscle that spends its days submerged and its nights grazing on land.
- 03
African Wild Dog: Painted wolves of the savanna — endurance hunters with one of the most striking coats in Africa.
- 04
African Buffalo: Bosses and bulk — Africa's formidable herd bovine, never to be confused with the American bison.
- 05
Black Mamba: Africa's fastest snake — olive-grey speed, ink-black mouth, and a reputation that travels.
- 06
Springbok: Pronking icon of the arid plains — white face blaze, side stripe, and gravity-defying leaps.
- 07
Greater Kudu: Spiral-horn giant of the bush — white stripes, huge corkscrew horns, and quiet woodland grace.
- 08
Bat-eared Fox: Radar ears for termites — the insect-hunting fox of Africa’s open plains.
Best places to spot wildlife
Kalahari Desert
Central Botswana
Red sand and sparse scrub, home to meerkat mobs, gemsbok, and brown hyenas at burrow entrances at dawn.
Okavango Delta
Northern Botswana
A river that never reaches the sea. Mokoro trips through papyrus channels with elephants, hippos, and painted dogs.
Chobe National Park
Northern Botswana
One of Africa's greatest elephant concentrations along the Chobe River at sunset.
Makgadikgadi Pans
Northeast Botswana
Vast salt flats that flood seasonally, with flamingos, zebra migrations, and meerkats on the pan edges.
Keep exploring
Species guides
Where to see them
- Meerkat in BotswanaWhere to find it
- Hippopotamus in BotswanaWhere to find it
- African Wild Dog in BotswanaWhere to find it
- African Buffalo in BotswanaWhere to find it
- Black Mamba in BotswanaWhere to find it
- Springbok in BotswanaWhere to find it
- Greater Kudu in BotswanaWhere to find it
- Bat-eared Fox in BotswanaWhere to find it
Free on iOS
Explore Botswana with Catch'Um
Find wildlife in the field, then scan it to log your discovery.