Photos

Like a watercolor in which a brushstroke of dark green has bled into a damp spot on the paper, the Okavango River spreads across the pale, parched landscape of northern Botswana to become the lush Okavango Delta - the largest inland delta in the world. This false-color satellite image shows where the river empties into a basin in the Kalahari Desert, creating a maze of lagoons, channels, and islands where vegetation flourishes, even in the dry season, and wildlife abounds. The delta originally fed into an ancient, now-dry Lake Makgadikgadi. Image courtesy of USGS.

Fiery sunset on the Okavango Delta (also called the Okavango Swamp), the world's largest inland delta. The Okavango River empties as a swamp in a basin of the Kalahari Desert where, through the processes of evaporation and transpiration (water given off by plants), it disappears. Most of the islands in the delta began as termite mounds. The delta is home for a wide variety of birds and animals.

Following a large meal, lions can enter a semi-stupor state and just want to rest.

A giraffe on the move across the veld.

A perching lilac-breasted roller.

A resting but wary leopard.

Elephants are known for their intelligence. These two are hanging out in the shade to escape the scorching midday sun.

A contented male lion following a big meal.

A grazing water buffalo in Chobe National Park.

Elephant on the move at Chobe National Park, Botswana's first national park and also its most biologically diverse. Located in the north of the country, it has one of the greatest concentrations of game in all of Africa.

Elephants at a water hole in Chobe National Park.

Grazing hippopotamus at Chobe National Park.