Qualla: Chobe National Park

Chobe National Park: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Flip666, CC BY-SA 1.0. Fifty thousand elephants live in the Chobe region. That number is not a typo, and it is not evenly distributed -- during the dry season, these Kalahari elephants concentrate along the Chobe River in herds so large they reshape the riverbank, toppling trees and churning the floodplain into a mudscape of footprints the size of dinner plates. Chobe National Park, in Botswana's far northeast corner where the borders of Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Namibia converge within shouting distance, was the country's first national park when it was established in 1967. It remains its most diverse.

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Image: Flip666 | CC BY-SA 1.0

Chobe National Park: Four Landscapes in One Park

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ian Sewell, CC BY-SA 2.5. Chobe is not a single habitat but a patchwork of four distinct ecosystems, each drawing different species and offering a different character. The Chobe River riverfront in the north is the park's showpiece -- a ribbon of permanent water flanked by floodplains where elephants, hip...

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Image: Ian Sewell | CC BY-SA 2.5

Chobe National Park: The Kalahari Giants

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Chobe's elephants are the Kalahari subspecies, and they are the largest in Africa. Their tusks, however, tell a different story -- many are cracked or broken, a consequence of calcium-poor soils that make the ivory brittle. Watch a herd at the Chobe riverfront during the dry mont...

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Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 4.0

Chobe National Park: Wings Over the River

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit LBM1948, CC BY-SA 4.0. Over 400 bird species have been recorded within Chobe's boundaries, a count that reflects the park's unusual range of aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Along the riverbanks, African fish eagles perch in dead trees, their piercing calls one of the signature sounds of the African b...

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Image: LBM1948 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Chobe National Park: Where Nations Converge

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Chobe's location makes it unusually accessible for a major African national park. Victoria Falls -- one of the continent's most visited landmarks -- lies just 60 kilometers to the east, and many visitors combine the two destinations in a single trip. The town of Kasane, perched a...

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Image: Bernard Gagnon | CC BY-SA 4.0