Chobe National Park

The Chobe National Parkis the third largest national park in Botswana. It covers 10,566 square kilometres and has one of the greatest concentrations of game found inAfrica. Its uniqueness in the abundance of wildlife and the true wild African nature of the region, offers a safari experience of a lifetime.

The park is divided intodistinctly different eco systems: Serondela with its lush plains and dense forests in the Chobe River area in the extreme north-east; the Savuti Marsh in the west about fifty kilometres north of Mababe gate; the Linyanti Swamps in the north-west and finally between Linyanti and Savuti Marshes lies a the hot dry hinterland mainly occupied by Nogatsaa grass woodland.

Second largest national park in Botswana

[Click for bigger area map]

The original inhabitants, of what is now the park, were the San people, otherwise known in Botswana as the Basarwa. They were hunter-gatherers who lived by moving from one area to another in search of water, wild fruits and wild animals.

The San were later joined by groups of the Basubiya people and later still, around 1911, by a group of Batawana led by Sekgoma.

When the country was divided into various land tenure systems, the larger part of the area that is now the national park was classified as crown land. In 1931 the idea of creating a national park in the area was first mooted, in order to protect the wildlife from extinction and to attract visitors. In 1932, an area of some 24,000 square kilometres in the Chobe district was declared a non-hunting area and the following year, the protected area was increased to 31,600 square kilometres.

Due to heavy tsetse fly infestationsthe whole idea lapsed in 1943. In 1957, the idea of a national park was raised again when an area of about 21,000 square kilometres was proposed as a game reserve and eventually a reduced area was gazetted in 1960 as Chobe Game Reserve. Later, in 1967, the reserve was declared a national park - the first national park in Botswana.