Elephants, Chobe National Park (Zambia) (photo)

Chobe National Park, Botswana.The Chobe National Park is located in the Northern part of Botswana and comprises an area of approximately 11 000 km². The park lies along the Chobe River, which borders Botswana and Namibia. The Chobe National Park is the second largest park in Botswana and is known for its superb game viewing all year round as it has one of the largest populations of game on the African continent. Chobe is probably most well known for its impressive herds of African Elephants. The Chobe River supports the largest concentration of elephant found anywhere in Africa and it is not uncommon to encounter herds in excess of a hundred. The Chobe River has its origins in Angola, where it is known as the Kwando River. When it enters Botswana, the Kwando River becomes the Linyanti and then near Ngoma Gate it becomes the Chobe River. The Chobe River meets up with the Zambezi River near Kazangula at the border of Botswana. Guests are able to fish for tigerfish and bream in both the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers, which undoubtedly are the premier tigerfishing waters in Africa. The most remarkable feature of the Chobe National Park is its huge concentration of elephants. Chobe National Park hosts the largest surviving elephant populations in the world, currently estimated to exceed 120,000. This population is dispersed throughout much of northern Botswana as well as parts of northwestern Zimbabwe. The Chobe elephants are migratory, making seasonal movements of up to 200 kilometers in a circuit from the Chobe and Linyanti rivers, where they concentrate in the dry season, to the pans in the southeast of the park, where they gather during the rainy season. Chobe National Park is home to huge herds of Elephant, Buffalo, and Burchell's Zebra. There are high densities of predators such as Lion, Leopard, Spotted Hyena and Cheetah. Photographed in 2013