The place for wildlife experiences. Chobe is a spotter’s paradise and is one of the best places in the world to see elephants. An estimated 120,000 elephants live in the Park. The river is also the destination of other large herds including Cape Buffalo and Burchell’s Zebra. One of the best ways to explore the Park is from the Chobe River itself. Snaking along the northern border of the Park, it presents opportunities to get up close and personal with hippos, crocodiles and a spectacular range of birdlife.
Found at the heart of the park, Savuté boasts most of the Chobe region species, except for water-loving antelope. It is best known for its large resident populations of predators, particularly lion, cheetah and hyena.
The Savuté channel flows from the Linyanti River for about 100 km, carrying water away from the river, releasing it into a vast swampland called the Savuté Marsh, and further south on to the Mababe Depression, also fed by the Ngwezumba River from the northeast. The Mababe – immense and flat and fringed by thickets of trees – was once part of the Makgadikgadi super-lake. When filled with water, it attracts thousands of migratory birds and animals, vast herds of zebra.
Geographically, Savuté is an area of many curiosities. One of its greatest mysteries is the Savuté channel itself, which has over the past 100 years inexplicably dried up and recommenced its flow several times. Attributed by some to plate tectonics, this irregular water flow results in numerous dead trees lining the channel. These trees germinate and grow when the channel is dry, but they drown when the channel flows again.
