The Chobe National Park is the second-largest national park in Botswana and covers 10,566 square kilometres, and has one of the greatest concentrations of game found on the African continent. Its uniqueness in the abundance of wildlife and the true African nature of the region offers a safari experience of a lifetime. In 1967, the reserve was declared a national park – the first national park in Botswana.
The park is divided into four distinctly different ecosystems: 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 the hot dry hinterland in between.
All ATC trips include a boat cruise on the Chobe River with an optional game drive should clients wish to partake.
A major feature of Chobe National Park is its elephant population. First of all, the Chobe elephant comprises part of what is probably the largest surviving continuous elephant population. This population covers most of northern Botswana plus northwestern Zimbabwe. Botswana’s elephant population is currently estimated at around 120,000. This elephant population has built up steadily from a few thousand since the early 1900s and has escaped the massive illegal off take that has decimated other populations in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Chobe elephant is migratory, making seasonal movements of up to 200 kilometres from the Chobe and Linyanti rivers, where they concentrate in the dry season, to the pans in the southeast of the park, to which they disperse in the rains. The elephants, in this area, have the distinction of being the largest in body size of all living elephants though the ivory is brittle and you will not see many huge tuskers among these rangy monsters.
