I can’t count how many times I thought I would see a particular animal on a safari, only to be disappointed on reaching the location. To prevent you from feeling the same way, we’ve created this article that lists the animals you’ll find at Chobe National Park.
In this post, we share exclusive details about the animals at Chobe National Park, including the Big Five, birds, and even some endangered animals. We also discuss when and where to see these animals, and how frequently they appear at the park.
Chobe National Park boasts the largest population of elephants in Africa. UNESCO estimates the number of elephants in the park to be about 50,000.
Although elephants are most famous for being the largest mammal on earth, they also offer unique spectacles you can’t resist. One of such spectacles is the animal’s ability to perform multiple functions with their body parts. While the elephant’s long ears are useful for ventilation and hearing, its long trunks help with feeding, drinking, and bathing.
Take a boat safari across the Chobe River to watch herds of elephants bathing and drinking from the river’s edge with their long trunks. You can also catch them swimming across the river to the other side.
The buffaloes at Chobe National Park move around in herds, often exceeding 1000 in population.
The best time to see these animals at the park is in the dry season, when they graze around the floodplains of the Chobe River. As soon as the raining season sets in, the buffaloes disappear into the Botswana wilderness, and only return when the land dries up again.
The main predators of the buffaloes at Chobe National Park are lions. If you’re lucky, you may catch a lion staging its kill on a buffalo. Observing the kill would give you a chance to watch the lion’s hunting skills and admire the buffalo’s tenacity.
Chobe National Park used to have a healthy lion population. But dispersal and decimation of these lions by local farmers have caused their population to fall below 20.
The surviving members of the pride at Chobe are more active at night and dawn than during the day. In the daytime, the lions spend most of their time relaxing under the shade of the trees surrounding the Linyanti and Savuti marshes.
Join the night game drive to watch lions patrol their territories, interact with other lions, and hunt down
We should note that the dry season presents better chances of spotting lions at night in Chobe. During this period, lions and other predators stick around the Chobe River to devour the multitudes of prey that visit the river in search of water.
Chobe National Park contains a few leopards. However, they are more difficult to spot than most members of the Big Five.
The leopards at this park often lounge around the woodlands near the Chobe River. You can also find them hiding under trees. The tree shades protect the leopards from the heat and their predators: lions and hyenas. Leopards also use tree branches as storage for their kills.
A leopard functions better in cold weather than in the heat. That’s why you’re more likely to see the animal at dawn or late at night than in the afternoon. Likewise, the rainy season provides better opportunities for spotting this Big Five.
The rhino is the rarest Big Five at Chobe National Park. In the early twentieth century, the park used to boast a healthy population of black and white rhinos. But as more of these animals suffered poaching, the population began to drop until a meager number of rhinos were left.
Due to their lack of strong vision, rhinos rely on their sense of smell to detect other animals. Male rhinos become territorial when they notice other males in the area. However, female rhinos tend to socialize and welcome other rhinos into their herds.
While communicating with each other, rhinos make a range of funny noises that have unique interpretations. For instance, snorts indicate anger, and screams show that they are scared.
Most rhino sightings at Chobe occur on the grassland or near the river.
The deep-grunting hippo is a common spectacle at Chobe National Park. Despite being primarily herbivores, hippos have massive teeth, which are used for territorial fights, devouring their occasional prey, and defense against other predators.
What’s most surprising about this species is that they spend more time chasing predators off other animals than fighting their own predators. How helpful of them!
Visit Chobe National Park at the onset of the dry season (May, June, July) to catch hippos charging at predators in the river. Towards the end of the dry season (August – October), the hippos move to floodplains and swamps in search of food.
The giraffe is the only animal that appears more frequently than elephants at Chobe National Park.
Giraffes habitually spread around the horizon in herds of 100 or more to protect themselves from attack by predators. Thanks to their impressive height, they are also blessed with a long range of vision that helps them spot enemies from several miles away. This communal behavior prevents giraffes from going extinct.
Giraffes are often spotted behind trees, usually chewing at leaves and peeking at passersby. The best time to see giraffes at Chobe is during the wet season, when all the tree branches bear leaves.
Another major inhabitant of Chobe National Park is the Nile crocodile. The distinct feature of the Nile crocodile is its V-shaped snout, which looks vastly different from the U-shaped snouts of other crocodile species. It’s entire body is covered in geometrical horn plates, which extend to the animal’s skull.
The crocodiles at Chobe spend most of their time swimming in the river or sunbaking on the riverbank. While on the riverbank, these crocodiles feast on their prey, which could be buffaloes or zebras. You can easily catch crocodile sightings by booking a sunset cruise along the Chobe River.
Most of the crocodiles you’ll see at the park will be adults. Young Nile crocodiles often hide themselves in self-dug holes until they attain maturity.
You can tell the age of a Nile Crocodile by studying its skin color. Young crocodiles have green and black markings on the skin, while adults are either gray- or olive-colored.
Move away from the Chobe River waterline to catch herds of impalas grazing among the trees.
Despite being prey for a countless number of predators, impalas have maintained and increased their population size at Chobe National Park. When a predator attacks, impalas resist the attack by grouping up, fighting as a team, and watching each other until the predator leaves.
Impalas are best sighted during mating season (March–May). Watching several male impalas fight themselves in order to mate with the females is a sight for sore eyes.
Named after the wart-like protrusions on the faces, warthogs are an easily-sighted species in Chobe. You can catch them wallowing in waterholes or drinking from the Chobe River in the dry season.
Many other species of animals find warthogs loveable. Oxpeckers, monkeys, and mongoose aid warthogs in picking biting insects from their hides.
The warthog is one of the most fearless animals I have ever seen. I once watched a warthog turn around to face its predator, a hyena, while trying to escape. The warthog fought relentlessly within the hyena until the predator gave up and left.
Chobe National Park contains two species of hyenas: spotted hyenas and brown hyenas. Spotted hyenas frequent the Chobe riverbank, and are often seen by guests, especially during the cold nights in the dry season.
Brown hyenas are more difficult to see. The low number of brown hyenas at Chobe is due to their failure to hunt prey actively. Instead of attacking other animals themselves, brown hyenas survive by stealing kills from lions and spotted hyenas. The only time you might see brown hyenas is when they catch small prey like insects and small amphibians.
Kudu frequently appears in large numbers along the Chobe River. The kudu is an antelope bearing spiraled horns, large ears, and white body stripes. Another unique characteristic of kudu is their gruff bark, which is much louder than the noises from other types of antelopes. They also boast excellent jumping abilities, and can easily scale a 2m fence.
Male kudu often walk around alone, while their female counterparts move in herds of six or more.
The red lechwe is another antelope you’ll likely meet at Chobe National Park. The striking differences on this antelope are long, thin horns and bold, black marks on its front legs.
The Chobe River is a sure place to catch the red lechwe, as they spend most of their time near water bodies. You might also find them swimming with their bellies and limbs submerged in the river.
Like many animals at Chobe, the red lechwe move in herds to protect themselves from predator attacks. But, due to the territorial attitude of males, red lechwe herds rarely contain more than one male. What you’ll most likely see are herds with multiple females and only one male.
When predators approach them, these animals resist attack by scattering in different directions to confuse the enemy.
The cheetah is one of the least seen animals at Chobe National Park. Although some tourists have been lucky to catch them at Chobe, they mostly frequent the Linyanti region of Botswana.
To make matters worse, the cheetah is the fastest animal on land. So, even if you get to see the animal, it might move too fast for you to take candid pictures. Check the top of the trees in the Chobe National Park for the best chance at sighting cheetahs and taking clear snapshots of them.
The zebras in Botswana spend the driest months (June to Early November) at the Chobe River floodplains. Once the rains begin, these herds migrate to the Nxai Pan National Park and remain there until the end of the rainy season. So, you should visit Chobe in the dry season if you want to see zebras.
The tell-tale feature of zebras is the black and white stripes that cover every part of their skin. At birth, these stripes take a reddish-brown color. Then, they keep darkening over time until they finally become black.
Chobe National Park is one of the best places in the world to catch the wild dog. Chobe’s home country, Botswana, contains a third of all the wild dogs left on earth, and Chobe enjoys a major share of this fraction.
Popularly known as the painted dog, or Cape hunting dog, the wild dog is a lean, long-legged dog with a multi-colored coat that helps conceal its presence from predators. Wild dogs often live in packs around the boundaries of the Chobe National Park and lie in woodlands and grasslands.
Wild dogs exhibit human-like social behavior; sharing their food, helping ill members, and teaming up to fight larger predators.
Book a Safari Tour in Chobe National Park
Ready to plan a safari in Chobe? Then, book your tour with Good Earth Tours. We’ve spent over five years planning safaris around Chobe National Park and its environs and can easily help you find the best locations for sightings.
Fill out our contact form to start planning your exclusive Chobe safari.
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