The Kalahari: African Elephants, Desert Animals and Plants

The Kalahari Desert in southern Africa is one of the most unique, spectacular places on earth. Covering about 2.5-million kilometers across Botswana and some of South Africa and Namibia, the Kalahari Desert is made up of large stretches of mostly waterless land covered in brownish-red sand.

 

The word Kalahari comes from the Tswana (the language of the Bantu peoples of Africa) word Keir that means "great thirst" and the tribal word Khalagari that translates to "a place without water."

Because most of the Kalahari's land is sand without any water, many people do, in fact, consider the Kalahari Desert a desert. However, one river does flow through the northwestern part of the Kalahari Desert, the Okavango River. This river empties into a delta in large wildlife region. As one of the only water sources for miles around, the Okavango River is a place where many animals congregate to stay hydrated.

Because the Okavango River gives life to various kinds of vegetation throughout the Kalahari Desert, some people consider the Kalahari Desert to actually be a dry savannah, large areas of sand masses that are home to some vegetation. Some vegetation in this area includes Acacia trees, thorny shrubs and various kinds of grasses.

Most geography experts don't consider the Kalahari Desert to be a true desert. Instead the Kalahari is a fossil desert (also known as a paleodesert) because parts of it do receive about 250mm of rain each year.

If you pay a visit to the Kalahari Desert, look for the African elephant, the largest mammal on Earth. The African elephant weighs as much as seven tons and is generally about 13-feet tall and 24-feet long. Because African elephants eat hundreds of pounds of vegetation and drink up to 50 gallons of water each day, they are commonly found near the swampy areas around the Okavango River.

Rainfall in the Kalahari is varies according to region. While the northwestern part of the Kalahari gets around 250mm of rainfall each year, the southern parts of this desert receive less than 175mm.

However, because some parts of the Kalahari's sand contain limestone, they are more likely to sustain fallen water rather than immediately absorb it. In fact, the Boteti River, formerly known as the Botletle River, is a southeast tributary of the Okavango River that was formed from the succession of contiguous limestone pans of water.

As a result, the Kalahari, at times, has pans of water peppered through it, meaning that it likely isn't completely dry at any point in the year.