Okavango 2016
Vumbura, Okavango Delta, Botswana. As daylight wanes, a leopard rests in preparation for a night of hunting.
Vumbura, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A young hippo appears to float vertically in the water. There is some mystery about how this is happening, since the water here is believed to be too deep for the hippo to stand on the bottom and hippos aren't known to float well.
Vumbura, Okavango Delta, Botswana. Red lechwe frequent marshy areas of the delta.
Vumbura, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A hippo returns to deeper water after an unusual daylight foray on land.
Above Kwando area, Okavango Delta, Botswana. Hippos demonstrate the role they play in maintaining channels in the delta marshes.
Above Kwando area, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A pod of hippos.
Above Kwando area, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A red lechwe runs through shallow water. Lechwe legs are covered in a water-repellant substance that helps them run quite fast in knee-deep water.
Above Vumbura area, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A small group of red lechwe. One of them is focusing on the helicopter above.
Above Kwando area, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A tower of giraffes runs across a dry grass plain.
Above Moremi reserve, Okavango Delta, Botswana. Hippo paths create patterns in the marshes.
Above Moremi reserve, Okavango Delta, Botswana. Animal trails form abstract patterns on the grassland.
Above Moremi reserve, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A white (square-lipped) rhino calf leads its mother across the tracks of a Botswana Defense Force patrol route. Starting around 2000, populations of white and black rhinos were relocated from heavily poached regions elsewhere in Africa to this remote area of the delta. The rhinos are flourishing (especially the white rhinos), benefiting from aggressive anti-poaching measures by the Botswana military.
Above Vumbura area, Okavango Delta, Botswana. Wild date palms and real fan palms dominate this area among the termite mounds.
Above Vumbura area, Okavango Delta, Botswana. Islands in the delta are formed around termite mounds; they provide the dry land needed for trees.
Kwara, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A zebra foal stands in a burned out area, looking toward an area of grass left untouched by a massive wildfire that just burned through this area.
Kwara, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A zebra foal stays close to its mother while resting in a burned out area.
Kwara, Okavango Delta, Botswana. One of the Zulu Boys, a group of four powerful young males who recently took over a large pride in this area.
Kwara, Okavango Delta, Botswana. An ostrich takes a dust bath. The bird is supported here on its ankles and the long feet that attach below them. The bird's knees are up next to its body, largely hidden within its feathers.
Kwara, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A racing impala.
Kwara, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A red lechwe buck runs through shallow water.
Kwara, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A wattled crane forages for food in recently arrived fresh water. These are the largest cranes in Africa and the second largest in the world.
Kwara, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A warthog stands in the setting sun outside the termite mound that it shares with a clan of hyenas. Even though they are normally mortal enemies, diurnal warthogs and nocturnal hynenas sometimes share a termite mound as a denning area, especially when usable mounds are scarce.
Kwara, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A hyena pup is very curious about a safari vehicle.
Kwara, Okavango Delta, Botswana. A baobab tree is silhouetted against the setting sun. A pair of African fish eagles is perched in the top branches on the right and a large red-billed buffalo weaver nest occupies upper branches on the left.