The Kalahari Desert is a large
semi-arid
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...
sandy
savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
in
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number o ...
extending for , covering much of
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...
, and parts of
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
and
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
.
It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African
Namib
The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Nami ...
coastal desert, whose name is of
Khoekhoegowab
The Khoekhoe language (), also known by the ethnic terms Nama (''Namagowab'') , Damara (''ǂNūkhoegowab''), or Nama/Damara and formerly as Hottentot, is the most widespread of the non-Bantu languages of Southern Africa that make heavy use o ...
origin and means "vast place".
Etymology
''Kalahari'' is derived from the
Tswana
Tswana may refer to:
* Tswana people, the Bantu speaking people in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other Southern Africa regions
* Tswana language, the language spoken by the (Ba)Tswana people
* Bophuthatswana, the former ba ...
word ''Kgala'', meaning "the great thirst", or ''Kgalagadi'', meaning "a waterless place";
the Kalahari has vast areas covered by red sand without any permanent surface water.
History
The Kalahari Desert was not always a dry desert. The
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
flora and fauna from
Gcwihaba
Gcwihaba is a cave in Botswana located in Okavango Delta region. The Gcwihaba Caves were part of the Kalahari landscape around 2 million years ago, at least for the entire period of the Pleistocene. The name of the cave is a San word and stands ...
Cave in Botswana indicates that the region was much wetter and cooler at least from 30 to 11 thousand
BP (before present) especially after 17,500 BP.
Geography
Drainage of the desert is by dry black valleys, seasonally inundated pans and the large
salt pans of the
Makgadikgadi Pan
The Makgadikgadi Pan ( Tswana pronunciation ), a salt pan situated in the middle of the dry savanna of north-eastern Botswana, is one of the largest salt flats in the world. The pan is all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadi ...
in Botswana and
Etosha Pan
The Etosha Pan is a large endorheic salt pan, forming part of the Cuvelai-Etosha Basin in the north of Namibia. It is a hollow in the ground in which water may collect or in which a deposit of salt remains after water has evaporated. The 120-kilo ...
in Namibia. The only permanent river, the
Okavango, flows into a
delta
Delta commonly refers to:
* Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet
* River delta, at a river mouth
* D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta")
* Delta Air Lines, US
* Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19
Delta may also ...
in the northwest, forming marshes that are rich in wildlife. Ancient dry riverbeds—called
omuramba
Omuramba (plural: ''Omiramba'') is the term for ancient river-beds found in the Kalahari Desert of Africa, notably in the North Eastern part of Namibia and North Western part of Botswana. The word is taken from the Herero language. An omuramba pro ...
—traverse the central northern reaches of the Kalahari and provide standing pools of water during the rainy season.
A semi-desert, with huge tracts of excellent grazing after good rains, the Kalahari supports more animals and plants than a true desert, such as the
Namib Desert
The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Nami ...
to the west. There are small amounts of rainfall and the summer temperature is very high. The driest areas usually receive of rain per year,
and the wettest just a little over . The surrounding
Kalahari Basin
The Kalahari Basin, also known as the Kalahari Depression, Okavango Basin or the Makgadikgadi basin, is an endorheic basin and large lowland area covering approximately 725,293 km2 covering most of Botswana and Namibia, as well as parts of Angol ...
covers over extending farther into Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, and encroaching into parts of
Angola
, national_anthem = " Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
,
Zambia
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...
and
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...
.
Numerous pans exist within the Kalahari, including the
Groot-vloer Pan and
Verneukpan
Verneukpan is a widespread dry salt pan south of Kenhardt, between Swartkop and Diemansput in the Northern Cape, South Africa. ''Verneuk'' is Afrikaans for to trick, mislead, screw or swindle. The pan is used for aerotowing operations. During ...
where evidence of a wetter climate exists in the form of former contouring for capturing of water. This and other pans, as well as river bottoms, were written about extensively at Sciforums by an article by Walter Wagner regarding the extensive formerly wet areas of the Kalahari. The Kalahari is extensive and extends farther north where abandoned extensive roadways also exist.
Climate
North and east, approximately where the dry forests, savannahs and salt lakes prevail, the climate is sub-humid rather than semi-arid. South and west, where the vegetation is predominantly xeric savanna or even a semi-desert, the climate is "Kalaharian"
semi-arid
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...
. The Kalaharian climate is subtropical (average annual temperature greater than or equal to 18 °C, at peaks reaching 40 °C and above, with mean monthly temperature of the coldest month strictly below 18 °C), and is semi-arid with the dry season during the "cold" season, the coldest six months of the year. It is the southern tropical equivalent of the
Sahelian climate with the wet season during summer. The altitude has been adduced as the explanation why the Kalaharian climate is not tropical; its altitude ranges from 600 to 1600 meters (and generally from 800 to 1200 meters), resulting in a cooler climate than that of the Sahel or
Sahara. For example, winter frost is common from June to August, something rarely seen in the warmer Sahelian regions. For the same reason, summer temperatures certainly can be very hot, but not in comparison to regions of low altitude in the Sahel or Sahara, where some stations record average temperatures of the warmest month around 38 °C, whereas the average temperature of the warmest month in any region in the Kalahari never exceeds 29 °C, though daily temperatures occasionally reach up to close to (44.8 °C at Twee Rivieren Rest Camp in 2012).
![Gewitter in der Kalahari](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Gewitter_in_der_Kalahari.jpg)
The dry season lasts eight months or more, and the wet season typically from less than one month to four months, depending on location. The southwestern Kalahari is the driest area, in particular a small region located towards the west-southwest of Tsaraxaibis (Southeast of Namibia). The average annual rainfall ranging from around 110 mm (close to aridity) to more than 500 mm in some areas of the north and east. During summer time in all regions rainfall may go with heavy thunderstorms. In the driest and sunniest parts of the Kalahari, over 4,000 hours of sunshine are recorded annually on average.
In the Kalahari, there are two main mechanisms of atmospheric circulation, dominated by the
Kalahari High anticyclone
An anticyclone is a weather phenomenon defined as a large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from ...
:
* The North and North-west of the Kalahari is subject to the alternation "
Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)/"Continental
Trade winds
The trade winds or easterlies are the permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisp ...
". The ITCZ is the meeting area of the boreal trade winds with their austral counterparts what meteorologists call "Meteorological equator" and the sailors "Doldrum" or "Pot-au-noir" : the ITCZ generates rains in the wet season, whereas the continental trade winds cause the dry season;
* The rest of the Kalahari is subject to the maritime trade winds, that largely shed their moisture as they cross up and over the
Southern African Great Escarpment before arriving over the Kalahari.
There are huge subterranean water reserves beneath parts of the Kalahari; the
Dragon's Breath Cave
Dragon's Breath Cave was discovered by Roger Ellis during a caving expedition to the area in 1986. The cave is located northwest of Grootfontein in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. It is named for the moist air rising from its entrance which r ...
, for example, is the largest documented non-subglacial underground lake. Such reserves may be in part the residues of ancient lakes; the Kalahari Desert was once a much wetter place. The ancient
Lake Makgadikgadi
Lake Makgadikgadi ( tn, Letsha la Makgadikgadi, label=Setswana, ) was a paleolake that existed in what is now the Kalahari Desert in Botswana from 2,000,000 years BP to 10,000 years BP. It may have once covered an area of from and was 30 m de ...
dominated the area, covering the Makgadikgadi Pan and surrounding areas, but it drained or dried out some 10,000 years ago. It may have once covered as much as . In ancient times, there was sufficient moisture for farming, with dikes and dams collecting the water. These are now filled with sediment, breached, or no longer in use, though they can be readily seen via Google Earth.
The Kalahari has had a complex climatic history over the past million or so years, in line with major global changes. Changes in the last 250,000 years have been reconstructed from various data sources, and provide evidence of both former extensive lakes and periods drier than now. During the latter the area of the Kalahari has expanded to include parts of western Zimbabwe, Zambia and Angola.
Vegetation and flora
![Sand dune in the Kalahari Desert (Namibia)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Sand_dune_in_the_Kalahari_Desert_%28Namibia%29.jpg)
Due to its low aridity, the Kalahari supports a variety of flora. The native flora includes
acacia trees and many other herbs and grasses. The
kiwano fruit, also known as the horned melon, melano, African horned cucumber, jelly melon, or hedged gourd, is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
to a region in the Kalahari Desert (specific region unknown).
Even where the Kalahari "desert" is dry enough to qualify as a
desert in the sense of having low
precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...
, it is not strictly speaking a desert because it has too dense a ground cover. The main region that lacks ground cover is in the southwest Kalahari (southeast of Namibia, northwest of South Africa and southwest of Botswana) in the south of the
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is a large wildlife preserve and conservation area in southern Africa.
The park straddles the border between South Africa and Botswana and comprises two adjoining national parks:
* Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in S ...
. For instance in the
ZF Mgcawu District Municipality
The ZF Mgcawu District Municipality (known before 1 July 2013 as Siyanda) is one of the 5 districts of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The seat of ZF Mgcawu is Upington. The majority (76%) of its 236,783 people speak Afrikaans (2011 C ...
of South Africa, total vegetation cover may be as low as 30.72% on non-protected (from cattle grazing) farmlands south of
Twee Rivieren Rest Camp and 37.74% in the protected (from cattle grazing) South African side of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park: these southernmost Kalahari xeric savanna areas are truly semi-deserts. However, in all the remaining Kalahari, except on salt pans during the dry season, the vegetation cover can be clearly denser, up to almost 100% in some limited areas.
In an area of about 600,000 km
2 in the south and west of the Kalahari, the vegetation is mainly
xeric
Deserts and xeric shrublands are a biome defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. Deserts and xeric (ancient Greek xērós, “dry") shrublands form the largest terrestrial biome, covering 19% of Earth's land surface area. Ecoregions in this h ...
savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
. This area is the
ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...
identified by
World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature Inc. (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the Wor ...
as Kalahari xeric savanna AT1309. Typical savanna grasses include ''
Schmidtia'', ''
Stipagrostis'', ''
Aristida
''Aristida'' is a very nearly cosmopolitan genus of plants in the grass family. ''Aristida'' is distinguished by having three awns (bristles) on each lemma of each floret. The genus includes about 300 species found worldwide, often in arid warm ...
'', and ''
Eragrostis
''Eragrostis'' is a large and widespread genus of plants in the grass family, found in many countries on all inhabited continents and many islands.
''Eragrostis'' is commonly known as lovegrass or canegrass. The name of the genus is derived fr ...
''; these are interspersed with trees such as camelthorn (''
Acacia erioloba
''Vachellia erioloba'', the camel thorn, giraffe thorn, or Kameeldoring in Afrikaans, still more commonly known as ''Acacia erioloba'', is a tree of southern Africa in the family Fabaceae. Its preferred habitat is the deep dry sandy soils in par ...
''), grey camelthorn (''
Acacia haematoxylon
''Vachellia haematoxylon'' (gray camel thorn, giraffe thorn, af, Vaalkameeldoring, st, Mokholo) is a protected tree in South Africa.
See also
*List of Southern African indigenous trees
This is a list of Southern African trees, shrubs, suffr ...
''), shepherd's tree (''
Boscia albitrunca
''Boscia albitrunca'', commonly known as the shepherd tree or shepherd's tree ( af, Witgat, st, Mohlôpi, tn, Motlôpi, ve, Muvhombwe, xh, Umgqomogqomo, zu, Umvithi), is a protected tree in South Africa. The species epithet "albitrunca" ref ...
''), blackthorn (''
Acacia mellifera''), and silver cluster-leaf (''
Terminalia sericea
''Terminalia sericea'' is a species of deciduous tree of the genus ''Terminalia'' that is native to southern Africa. Its common names include clusterleaf, silver cluster-leaf or silver terminalia in English, vaalboom in Afrikaans and mususu in Ve ...
'').
In certain areas where the climate is drier, it becomes a true
semi-desert with ground not entirely covered by vegetation: "open" as opposed to "closed" vegetation. Examples include the north of the
ZF Mgcawu District Municipality
The ZF Mgcawu District Municipality (known before 1 July 2013 as Siyanda) is one of the 5 districts of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. The seat of ZF Mgcawu is Upington. The majority (76%) of its 236,783 people speak Afrikaans (2011 C ...
, itself in the north of South Africa, and the
Keetmanshoop Rural
Keetmanshoop Rural is an electoral constituency in the ǁKaras Region of Namibia. It contains the Krönlein suburb of Keetmanshoop and the villages of Koës and Aroab, the settlements of Seeheim and Klein Karas, as well as several farming com ...
in the southeast of Namibia. In the north and east, there are dry forests covering an area of over 300,000 km
2 in which
Rhodesian teak
''Baikiaea plurijuga'', known as African teak, Mukusi, Rhodesian teak, Zambian teak or Zambesi redwood, is a species of Afrotropical tree from the legume family, the Fabaceae from southern Africa.
Description
''Baikiaea plurijuga'' is a medi ...
and several species of
acacia are prominent. These regions are termed
Kalahari Acacia-Baikiaea woodlands
The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa.
It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal ...
AT0709.
Outside the Kalahari "desert", but in the Kalahari basin, a halophytic vegetation to the north is adapted to pans, lakes that are completely dry during the dry season, and maybe for years during droughts, such as in Etosha (
Etosha Pan halophytics AT0902) and Makgadikgadi (
Zambezian halophytics
The Makgadikgadi Pan (Tswana pronunciation ), a salt pan situated in the middle of the dry savanna of north-eastern Botswana, is one of the largest salt flats in the world. The pan is all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadikg ...
AT0908).
A totally different vegetation is adapted to the
perennial fresh water of the
Okavango Delta
The Okavango Delta (or Okavango Grassland; formerly spelled "Okovango" or "Okovanggo") in Botswana is a swampy inland delta formed where the Okavango River reaches a tectonic trough at an altitude of 930–1,000 m in the central part of the en ...
, an ecoregion termed
Zambezian flooded grasslands
The Zambezian flooded grasslands is an ecoregion of southern and eastern Africa that is rich in wildlife.
Setting
The Zambezian flooded grasslands can be found on seasonally- or permanently-flooded lowlands in the basin of the Zambezi and neighb ...
AT0907.
Fauna
The Kalahari is home to many migratory birds and animals. Previously havens for wild animals from
elephant
Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae ...
s to
giraffes, and for predators such as
lions and
cheetah
The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...
s, the riverbeds are now mostly grazing spots, though leopards and cheetahs can still be found. The area is now heavily grazed and cattle fences restrict the movement of wildlife. Among deserts of the Southern Hemisphere, the Kalahari most closely resembles some
Australian deserts in its latitude and its mode of formation.
Although there are few endemic species, a wide variety of species are found in the region, including large predators such as the
lion (''Panthera leo''),
cheetah
The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...
(''Acinonyx jubatus''),
leopard (''Panthera pardus''),
spotted hyena (''Crocuta crocuta''),
brown hyena (''Parahyaena brunnea''), and
African wild dog
The African wild dog (''Lycaon pictus''), also called the painted dog or Cape hunting dog, is a wild canine which is a native species to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest wild canine in Africa, and the only extant member of the genus '' Lyca ...
(''Lycaon pictus pictus'').
Birds of prey
Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predat ...
include the secretary bird (''
Sagittarius serpentarius
The secretarybird or secretary bird (''Sagittarius serpentarius'') is a large, mostly terrestrial bird of prey. Endemic to Africa, it is usually found in the open grasslands and savanna of the sub-Saharan region. John Frederick Miller describe ...
''), martial eagle (''
Polemaetus bellicosus
The martial eagle (''Polemaetus bellicosus'') is a large eagle native to sub-Saharan Africa.Ferguson-Lees & Christie, ''Raptors of the World''. Houghton Mifflin Company (2001), . It is the only member of the genus ''Polemaetus''. A species of ...
'') and other eagles, the giant eagle owl (''
Bubo lacteus'') and other owls,
falcon
Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene.
Adult falcons ...
s,
goshawk
Goshawk may refer to several species of birds of prey, mainly in the genus ''Accipiter'':
* Northern goshawk, ''Accipiter gentilis'', often referred to simply as the goshawk, since it is the only goshawk found in much of its range (in Europe and N ...
s,
kestrel
The term kestrel (from french: crécerelle, derivative from , i.e. ratchet) is the common name given to several species of predatory birds from the falcon genus ''Falco''. Kestrels are most easily distinguished by their typical hunting behaviou ...
s, and
kite
A kite is a tethered heavier-than-air or lighter-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create lift and drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have a bridle and tail to guide the fac ...
s. Other animals include
wildebeest
Wildebeest ( , , ), also called gnu ( or ), are antelopes of the genus ''Connochaetes'' and native to Eastern and Southern Africa. They belong to the family Bovidae, which includes true antelopes, cattle, goats, sheep, and other even-to ...
,
springbok
The springbok (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm ...
,
gemsbok and other
antelopes
The term antelope is used to refer to many species of even-toed ruminant that are indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia.
Antelope comprise a wastebasket taxon defined as any of numerous Old World grazing and browsing hoofed mammal ...
,
porcupines (''
Hystrix africaeaustralis
The Cape porcupine (''Hystrix africaeaustralis''), Cape crested porcupine or South African porcupine, is a species of Old World porcupine native to central and southern Africa.
Description
left, 180px, head
Cape porcupines are the second large ...
'') and
ostrich
Ostriches are large flightless birds of the genus ''Struthio'' in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, and kiwis. There ...
es (''
Struthio camelus
The common ostrich (''Struthio camelus''), or simply ostrich, is a species of flightless bird native to certain large areas of Africa and is the largest living bird species. It is one of two extant species of ostriches, the only living members o ...
'').
Some of the areas within the Kalahari are seasonal
wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...
s, such as the
Makgadikgadi Pans
The Makgadikgadi Pan (Tswana pronunciation ), a salt pan situated in the middle of the dry savanna of north-eastern Botswana, is one of the largest salt flats in the world. The pan is all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadikg ...
of
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...
. This area, for example, supports numerous
halophilic
The halophiles, named after the Greek word for "salt-loving", are extremophiles that thrive in high salt concentrations. While most halophiles are classified into the domain Archaea, there are also bacterial halophiles and some eukaryotic species, ...
species, and in the rainy season, tens of thousands of
flamingo
Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbea ...
s visit these pans.
The biggest threat to wildlife are the fences erected to manage herds of grazing cattle, a practice which also removes the plant cover of the savanna itself. Cattle ranchers will also poison or hunt down predators from the rangeland, particularly targeting jackals and wild dogs.
File:Kalahari gemsbok Oryx gazella.jpg, Oryx gazella
The gemsbok or South African oryx (''Oryx gazella'') is a large antelope in the genus ''Oryx''. It is native to the extremely dry, arid regions of Southern Africa; notably, the Kalahari Desert. Some authorities formerly classified the East Afric ...
Image:Suricata.jpg, A meerkat in the Kalahari
Image:Wd4 ian 710 01.JPG, The endangered African wild dog
The African wild dog (''Lycaon pictus''), also called the painted dog or Cape hunting dog, is a wild canine which is a native species to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest wild canine in Africa, and the only extant member of the genus '' Lyca ...
in Central Kalahari Game Reserve
Protected areas
The following protected areas were established in the Kalahari:
*
Central Kalahari Game Reserve
Central Kalahari Game Reserve is an extensive national park in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. Established in 1961 it covers an area of (larger than the Netherlands, and almost 10% of Botswana's total land area), making it the second largest game ...
*
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park is a large wildlife preserve and conservation area in southern Africa.
The park straddles the border between South Africa and Botswana and comprises two adjoining national parks:
* Kalahari Gemsbok National Park in S ...
*
Khutse Game Reserve
Khutse Game Reserve is a game reserve in Botswana.
Overview
The name Khutse means "where one kneels to drink" in Sekwena (the local dialect of Tswana). Because of its proximity, and relative accessibility, to the nation's capital, Khutse game Re ...
*Tswalu Kalahari
Population
![San-Mann beim Sammeln der Teufelskralle (Namibia)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/San-Mann_beim_Sammeln_der_Teufelskralle_%28Namibia%29.jpg)
The
San people
The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures that are the first cultures of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia ...
have lived in the Kalahari for 20,000 years as
hunter-gatherers.
They hunt wild game with bows and poison arrows and gather edible plants, such as berries, melons and nuts, as well as insects. The San get most of their water requirements from plant roots and desert melons found on or under the desert floor. They often store water in the blown-out shells of ostrich eggs. The San live in huts built from local materials—the frame is made of branches, and the roof is thatched with long grass. Most of their hunting and gathering techniques replicate pre-historic tribes.
Bantu
Bantu may refer to:
*Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages
*Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language
* Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle
*Black Association for National ...
-speaking
Tswana
Tswana may refer to:
* Tswana people, the Bantu speaking people in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other Southern Africa regions
* Tswana language, the language spoken by the (Ba)Tswana people
* Bophuthatswana, the former ba ...
,
Kgalagadi, and
Herero and a small number of European settlers also live in the Kalahari desert. The city of
Windhoek
Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 202 ...
is situated in the
Kalahari Basin
The Kalahari Basin, also known as the Kalahari Depression, Okavango Basin or the Makgadikgadi basin, is an endorheic basin and large lowland area covering approximately 725,293 km2 covering most of Botswana and Namibia, as well as parts of Angol ...
.
Kalahari, San and diamonds
In 1996,
De Beers evaluated the potential of diamond mining at Gope. In 1997, the eviction of the San and
Bakgalagadi
Kgalagadi is a Bantu language spoken in Botswana, along the South African border. It is spoken by about people. In the language, it is known as ''Shekgalagari''.
Classification
Kgalagadi (also rendered ''Kgalagari, Kgalagarhi, Kgalagari, Khal ...
tribes in the
Central Kalahari Game Reserve
Central Kalahari Game Reserve is an extensive national park in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. Established in 1961 it covers an area of (larger than the Netherlands, and almost 10% of Botswana's total land area), making it the second largest game ...
from their land began.
[
]
In 2006, a Botswana High Court ruled in favor of the San and Bakgalagadi tribes in the reserve, finding that their eviction was unlawful. The Government of Botswana granted a permit to De Beers' Gem Diamonds/Gope Exploration Company (Pty) Ltd. to conduct mining activities within the reserve.
[
]
Settlements within the Kalahari
Botswana
*
Gaborone
Gaborone ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census.
Gaboron ...
*
Ghanzi
Ghanzi is a town in the middle of the Kalahari Desert the western part of the Republic of Botswana in southern Africa. The region is the country's pride in contributing a large portion towards the beef industry. In fact, Ghanzi farmers provides ...
*
Orapa
Orapa is a town located in the Central District of Botswana. It is the site of the Orapa diamond mine, the largest diamond-producing mine in the world, and is considered to be the diamond capital of the country. Nearby is another kimberlite min ...
*
Tshabong
Tsabong, also spelled Tshabong, is the administrative centre of the Kgalagadi District in Botswana. It is located in the Kalahari Desert. The population was 8939 at the 2011 census.
The primary hospital in Tsabong serves a huge outlying area and ...
*
Tshane
Namibia
*
Gobabis
, nickname =
, settlement_type = City
, motto = Ex Oriente Lux
, image_skyline = Gobabis Namibia aerial.jpg
, imagesize = 300px
, imag ...
*
Mariental
South Africa
*
Upington
Upington ( Nama: //Khara hais) is a town founded in 1873 and located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, on the banks of the Orange River. The town was originally called Olijvenhoutsdrift ('Olive wood drift'), due to the abundance of ...
*
Noenieput
Noenieput is a small town in the Kalahari Desert in ZF Mgcawu District Municipality in the Northern Cape province of South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country ...
*
Rietfontein
Rietfontein is a town in ZF Mgcawu District Municipality located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It functions as the Rietfontein Borderpost with Namibia during the day hours of 08:00-16:30, that gives access to and from south-east ...
See also
*
Karoo
*
Kgalagadi (disambiguation)
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
"Cry of the Kalahari"
{{coord, 23, S, 22, E, scale:5000000, display=title
Botswana–Namibia relations
Deserts of Botswana
Deserts of Namibia
Deserts of South Africa
Ergs of Africa