We have the enormous privilege to live and work in the best preserved part of Africa with breathtaking beauty of creation. Especially Botswana with its huge National Parks and Game Reserves is a heaven for the great African animals and plants - a wilderness unique on the global scale and visited by thousands of people coming on safari - providing jobs for our people and means for the future conservation. www.catholicsafaris.com
This pages will be slowly developed into a larger collection of photographs and in bigger formats. At the moment we just want to show you what lives here.
The so called BIG FIVE (considered the most dangerous to hunt): elephant, lion, rhino, leopard and buffalo can be still seen in Botswana.
In fact Botswana has the largest elephant population in the world, more than 150.000 of these giants live here - three times more than the Catholic population of the country. Rhinos are the most endangered, but, after great conservation efforts, their number is slowly but steadily increasing.
The tallest, the fastest and the most dangerous: giraffe, cheetah and hippo. Hippos kill more people than all other large animals together.
Hyaenas are the creatures of the night and the most endangered carnivores of Africa - wild dogs - are still hunting free.
There can not be Africa without jackals, warthogs and zebras. We still have many of them in the bush. Several large zebra migrations are still occurring - an incredible spectacle of nature.
Some animals are notoriously difficult to see like the rare pangolin or aardwolf.
Baboons and vervet monkeys are great safari entertainers, but they can also be great trouble makers, stealing and damaging things.
Many smaller but equally interesting animals live in the desert and in the savannah like mongooses.
There are many different species of antelopes. Impala is the most common, but so is wildebeest and kudu.
Arguably, the most beautiful sable and the fastest of them all the tsessebe antelopes are often seen.
Water loving species are common in the Okavango Delta and near the Chobe and Limpopo River: waterbuck, lechwe, reedbuck, the very shy bushbuck and the rarest in Botswana - puku antelope.
The largest - eland - and the smallest steenbok are part of the great antelope family.
Antelopes are the only animals that can postpone the birth if the rains are too late in order to provide the offspring with the best conditions - so important in the desert and semi- desert. Many of the are great wanderers actively following the distant thunderstorms promising fresh grass and water.
Even in the middle of the desert, with no access to water, there are antelopes: springbok, gemsbok and great migrant red hartebeest.
Springbok and gemsbok don't lose water - their kidneys produce solid urine! Gemsbok is the only one that can purposely increase the body temperature up to 45 centigrade (not to sweat in the heat), but the brain is serviced by a separate blood system at the normal 37 degrees Celsius!
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This list is not comprehensive, there are many more animals in our bush like the roan antelope that doesn't like to be observed by people and always keep a distance.
There are hundreds of interesting birds, reptiles, frogs and plants. We hope that our collection will grow steadily.
Pelicans come here to bread and the vultures keep the bush clean.
Would you like to see these amazing animals yourself? Come to visit Botswana and book safari with us:
