Botswana
Central Kalahari Game Reserve
Central Kalahari Game Reserve is an extensive reserve in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. Established in 1961 it covers an area of 52,800 square kilometres, making it the second largest game reserve in the world. The reserve is located entirely within Botswana's Ghanzi District, making up over 40% of the district's territory.In the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, dramatic landscapes stretch endlessly across ancient riverbeds and golden grasslands. Home to desert-adapted wildlife like black-maned lions and oryx, this remote reserve delivers a raw, immersive safari defined by solitude, scale, and seasonal transformation.
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CKGR
The Central Kalahari Game Reserve offers a vast, remote wilderness of open plains, unique wildlife, and truly untamed safari experiences.
Central Kalahari Game Reserve is an extensive national park in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. Established in 1961 it covers an area of 52,800 square kilometres and almost 10% of Botswana's total land area), making it the second largest game reserve in the world. The reserve is located entirely within Botswana's Ghanzi District, making up over 40% of the district's territory.
The Central Kalahari Game Reserve hosts South African giraffe, African bush elephant, spotted hyena, brown hyena, honey badger, meerkat, yellow mongoose, common warthog, South African cheetah, caracal, African wild dog, black-backed jackal, bat-eared fox, cape fox, African leopard, lion, blue wildebeest, plains zebra, common eland, sable antelope, gemsbok, springbok, steenbok, impala, greater kudu, aardvark, cape ground squirrel, cape hare, cape porcupine, red hartebeest and ostrich.
The Bushmen, or San, have inhabited the lands for thousands of years since they roamed the area as nomadic hunters. The San speak, or their ancestors spoke, languages of the Khoe, Tuu, and Kxʼa language families, and can be defined as a people only in contrast to neighboring pastoralists such as the Khoekhoe and descendants of more recent waves of immigration such as the Bantu and South Asians.
The Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) operates on two main seasons: a hot, wet summer (November–April) and a cold, dry winter (May–October). The best game viewing is paradoxically during the wet season (December–March) when rains attract large herds to the greening northern pans. The dry season offers better road conditions and improved visibility of predators around permanent waterholes.
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