Some of our footage featured in this short program on Okavango Park
© Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Armand Amar, Hope Production, images Bruno Cusa
Aerial footage of Okavango National Park
The Okavango Delta, in northern Botswana, is one of Africa's most singular natural spectacles : a river that never reaches the sea, but instead disappears into the sands of the Kalahari Desert, irrigating 15,000 km² of arid land and creating a labyrinth of channels, lagoons and floating islands unlike anything else seen from the air.
The second-largest inland delta in the world after the Niger's, the Okavango becomes the stage each year for a remarkable concentration of wildlife : elephants, buffalo, hippopotamuses, Nile crocodiles, lions, cheetahs and more than 400 bird species converge on these seasonally flooded lands, offering aerial cameras scenes of wildlife of remarkable density.
Giraffes and large herbivores — The delta holds one of the highest concentrations of large wildlife on the continent. Giraffes, zebras, antelopes, wildebeest and kudus move in herds across the grassy plains and channels, forming aerial compositions found nowhere else in the world.
Elephants and predators — Elephant herds cross the delta's waterways in search of grazing, while lions and leopards move closer to waterholes to hunt, revealing a hierarchy of predation that is especially visible from above. Confined within the park, vast as it is, elephants exert growing pressure on the vegetation : our footage shows a herd attacking a baobab tree to extract its fibrous, water-rich core — a behaviour that illustrates the limits of even the largest protected areas when faced with concentrated animal populations.
Crocodiles and aquatic life — The network of channels and lagoons is home to a significant population of Nile crocodiles, as well as hippopotamuses and an exceptional birdlife, including the African fish eagle and the grey crowned crane, Botswana's national emblem.
The rest of the country, covered almost 70% by the Kalahari Desert, offers a radical contrast : arid expanses, dried salt pans and scrubby savanna take over from the delta's lush greenery — a rare diversity of landscapes for such a flat territory.
Okavango aerial footage
