Central Kalahari Game Reserve - UNIQUE LANDSCAPES IN THE HEART OF BOTSWANA

For wildlife, surviving the drought conditions requires readiness to travel long distances in search of food. Since rainfall occurs periodically and in localized areas, grazers such as impalas and springboks must migrate to where there is greenery. Predators, including the famous black-maned lions or the brown hyena, follow the grazing herds.

Many animals adjust their life rhythms and hunt only during the cooler times of the day. Some can also adjust their body temperature to the environment to produce less fluid. Hoofed animals like certain antelope species can obtain life-sustaining fluid for months solely from highly water-containing plants and fruits, such as specific melons or cucumbers.

Predators survive by deriving their fluid from the blood of their prey. Furthermore, some have been observed quenching their thirst by drinking ostrich eggs or consuming fluid-containing plants.

By the way, humans also inhabit the Kalahari. The San, nomadic people, retreated to the Kalahari after the arrival of the Bantu and Europeans, adapting physically and through sophisticated hunting and water storage methods over centuries. As hunter-gatherer people, they live off the wildlife and plant life of the Kalahari, as well as the mining of rooibos and salt extraction.