Wildlife of
Botswana

Primary Threats

• Conflict is acute along the Okavango Delta panhandle, Chobe River frontage, and the Boteti/Ngamiland edges where people, livestock, and crops overlap with elephants, hippos, lions, hyenas, and crocodiles. Elephants frequently raid crops and damage water infrastructure; predators take cattle/goats, triggering retaliatory killings and pressure to reduce wildlife numbers near settlements.
• Increasing temperature and rainfall variability intensify droughts, heat stress, and occasional severe flooding, affecting water availability in the Kalahari and the seasonal flooding regime of the Okavango Delta. Drought concentrates wildlife at remaining water points (raising disease and conflict risks) and can reduce forage, while altered flood timing/extent can affect wetland breeding habitat for birds and fish and the distribution of herbivores.
• While large protected areas remain, localized habitat loss and degradation occur around growing villages/towns in the north, along riverfronts, and near tourism hubs where settlement expansion, fuelwood collection, and conversion of riparian zones reduce cover and alter wildlife access to water. In the drier interior, habitat quality is reduced by overgrazing and bush encroachment in some communal rangelands.
• Veterinary cordon fencing and other fences used for livestock disease control and range management can impede traditional wildlife movements (including across the Kalahari and between northern wetlands and inland grazing areas). Roads, expanding power/telecom corridors, and increasing vehicle traffic around Chobe/Moremi tourism routes can fragment habitat and elevate wildlife-vehicle collisions and disturbance.
• Illegal hunting for bushmeat persists in some wildlife areas, especially where poverty and limited protein alternatives exist, affecting antelope and other ungulates. Where hunting is permitted/regulated, governance and quota-setting quality are critical; poorly managed offtake or weak enforcement can undermine populations, particularly of slower-reproducing species.
• Botswana's elephants, and occasionally big cats and other high-value species, face poaching and trafficking pressures linked to regional illicit networks. Even when poaching levels are lower than in some neighboring states, proximity to cross-border routes (northern Botswana near Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) creates persistent risk for ivory and other wildlife products.
• Disease risk is closely tied to wildlife-livestock interfaces. Foot-and-mouth disease management drives fencing and movement controls, and outbreaks can affect buffalo-livestock dynamics and lead to policy responses that change land use. In drought years, stressed wildlife congregating at limited water sources can experience higher parasite and disease transmission.
• Water is a limiting resource across much of Botswana; groundwater extraction and competition for water around settlements and cattle posts can reduce reliability of water points for wildlife in arid and semi-arid areas. Localized depletion of woody biomass for fuelwood and construction materials can degrade riparian and savanna habitats.
• Mining (notably diamonds, coal, and other minerals) brings roads, water demand, and settlement growth. While major mines are often outside core wildlife wetlands, associated infrastructure and cumulative impacts (water abstraction, pollution risk, and habitat disturbance) can affect sensitive arid-zone systems and migration corridors.
• Pollution is generally localized but includes waste and sewage challenges around fast-growing towns and tourism nodes, potential hydrocarbon/chemical contamination from transport and industry, and pesticide/rodenticide use that can impact raptors and scavengers. In wetlands and riverfronts, poor waste handling can degrade water quality and increase human-wildlife interactions.
• Expansion of smallholder fields and commercial agriculture is limited by aridity but occurs in better-watered northern areas and around riverfronts, increasing conflict with elephants and hippos and converting floodplain/riparian habitat. Agricultural fencing can also restrict wildlife access to seasonal resources.
• High tourism density in parts of Chobe, Moremi, and the Okavango Delta can disturb sensitive species through vehicle pressure, off-road driving, noise, and boat traffic. Disturbance is especially relevant in dry seasons when wildlife is concentrated near permanent water and along riverfronts where viewing is most intense.