{"id":1586,"date":"2014-09-04T13:32:37","date_gmt":"2014-09-04T12:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/?p=1586"},"modified":"2020-07-22T09:21:09","modified_gmt":"2020-07-22T08:21:09","slug":"kalahari-desert-facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/kalahari-desert-facts\/","title":{"rendered":"Kalahari Desert Facts – Where Is It On The Map, What Plants & Animals Are Found There?"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Kalahari Desert is a large basin-like plain located in the southern part of Africa. The semi-arid desert which appears to be endless got its name\u00a0from the local\u00a0Tswana\u00a0word\u00a0Kgala, which means “the great thirst” or\u00a0Khalagari, meaning a waterless place.\u00a0However, the sand can retain water quite better than some of the other deserts you have probably heard of.<\/p>\n
The desert, located in Africa, occupies a large part of Botswana, the northernmost part of the Northern Cape Province in South Africa, and the eastern third of Namibia. It also merges with the Namib desert of Namibia in the southwest. The Kalahari has a long north-south extent which is roughly 1,000 miles, while the east-west stretch is about 600 miles.<\/p>\n
Although a land of extremes, droughts and unpleasantly rough weather, the Kalahari is one of the deserts where one can actually notice a variety of plant and animal life\u00a0including cheetahs, zebras, black-maned lions, flamingos, hyenas, and leopards.<\/p>\n
The Kalahari desert hosts a number of game reserves like Tswalu Kalahari, the\u00a0largest private game reserve in South Africa and the\u00a0Central Kalahari Game Reserve which is\u00a0the second largest protected area in the world at the moment. Apart from these popular\u00a0game reserves, there are several other ones\u00a0inhabited by\u00a0the Kalahari lion,\u00a0meerkats,\u00a0chacma baboons,\u00a0brown hyenas,\u00a0warthogs,\u00a0jackals,\u00a0giraffes, and different species of\u00a0antelopes, birds and reptiles.<\/p>\n
The World\u2019s largest Antelope known as Eland is also found in this area. The Eland can weigh up to 2,000 pounds.<\/p>\n