With 48.7% of Namibia comprising protected conservation areas, the country has an abundance of wildlife. This includes state parks, private protected areas, community conservation areas, freehold conservancies, state-tourism concessions and marine protected areas.
Etosha National Park, a popular destination in the heart of the country, has a series of strategically-placed waterholes, which attract elephants, zebras, giraffes, rhinos, lions and antelopes that come to slake their thirst. The wilder and sandier national parks in the Kavango and Zambezi regions are home to buffalo and wild dog as well as antelope like red lechwe and sitatunga that favour the wetland areas.
In the north-eastern corner of Namibia, the Kavango-Zambezi transfrontier conservation area links five countries and 520 000 square kilometres, enabling the movement of animals across borders. While rivers and waterways are home to healthy populations of crocodiles and hippos.
Namibia is blessed with many free roaming animals, including a population of desert elephants that follow the ephemeral rivers in the north-western section of the country.
Oryx – or gemsbok – are well-adapted to the desert regions and add their elegant beauty to the striking desert scenery. In the arid areas klipspringer can be spotted on the rocky slopes, Hartmann’s mountain zebras blend into the rugged hills; springbok pronk, springing energetically into the air and kudu freeze momentarily before melting into the landscape.
Sometimes referred to as the cheetah capital of the world, Namibia has the largest population of cheetahs on the planet.
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