Moremi Game Reserve
Moremi Game Reserve rests on the eastern side of the Okavango Delta and was named after Chief Moremi of the Batswana tribe.
The Moremi Game Reserve covers much of the eastern side of the Okavango Delta and combines permanent water with drier areas, which create some startling and unexpected contrasts. Some prominent geographical features of the Reserve are Chiefs Island and the Moremi Tongue.
Moremi Reserve is the best place to experience excellent views of savannah game as well as bird-watching on the lagoons. There are also thickly wooded areas, which are home to the rare African wild dog and leopard. To the northeast lies the Chobe National Park which borders the Moremi Game Reserve.
The Reserve covers 5,000 square kilometres (1,900 sq mi) in extent, it is a surprisingly diverse Reserve, combining mopane woodland and acacia forests, floodplains and lagoons. Only about 30% of the Reserve is mainland, with the bulk being within the Okavango Delta itself.
Moremi is the home to nearly 500 species of bird (from water birds to forest dwellers), and a vast array of other species of wildlife, including buffalo, giraffe, lion, leopard, cheetah, hyaena, jackal, impala, and red lechwe and African Wild dog.
Okavango Delta is the world’s largest inland delta formed where the Okavango River reaches a tectonic trough in the central part of the endorheic basin of the Kalahari. All the water reaching the Delta is ultimately evaporated and transpired, and does not flow into any sea or ocean.
The Okavango is produced by seasonal flooding. The Okavango River drains in January–February. The rainfall from the Angola highlands and the surge flows 1,200 kilometres in approximately one month the waters then spread over the 250 km by 150 km area of the delta over the next four months March–June.
The high temperature of the delta causes rapid transpiration and evaporation, resulting in a cycle of rising and falling water level that was not fully understood until the early 20th century. The flood peaks between June and August, during Botswana’s dry winter months, when the delta swells to three times its permanent size, attracting animals from kilometres around and creating one of Africa’s greatest concentrations of wildlife.
The Okavango delta is both a permanent and seasonal home to a wide variety of wildlife. The species include African Bush Elephant, Giraffe, African Buffalo, Hippopotamus, Lechwe, Tsessebe, Sitatunga, Leopard, Blue Wildebeest, Nile crocodile, Lion, Cheetah, , Brown Hyena, Spotted Hyena, Springbok, Greater Kudu, Sable Antelope, Black Rhinoceros, White Rhinoceros, Plains Zebra, Warthog and Chacma Baboon. The endangered African Wild Dog still survives within the Okavango
The delta also includes over 400 species of birds, including African Fish Eagle, Pel’s Fishing Owl, Crested Crane, Lilac-breasted Roller, Hammer-kop, Ostrich, and Sacred Ibis.