Botswana holds some of the most diverse, pristine and fragile ecosystems in Africa, two of which are acclaimed and protected at the international level; the Okavango Delta is the worlds largest Ramsar site covering approximately 68, 640 km2, while the Makgadikgadi Pans have recently been nominated to become a Ramsar site. These two areas, along with other National Parks, Game Reserves, Forest Reserves, Wildlife Management Areas and Community Hunting Areas contribute to approximately 28% of Botswana’s land-use, making Botswana one of the leading land-use conservationists in Africa.

Our service - ESA can take you into world renowned wilderness areas on a fully serviced safari. Using these wilderness areas as a classroom, they provide an almost most perfect classroom in which to learn about ecological processes and system dynamics. ESA can organise a safari to suit your needs.

• We have a mobile safari camp that can be placed in the heart of Botswana’s wilderness, so that you are surrounded by the sights and sounds of the African bush. The mobile camp allows us to move with you between different habitats and ecosystems enabling us to view and discuss a wider range of topics from the physiological adaptations of desert dwelling mammals to variations in animal behaviour within the same species.

Details of the trips - All ecological safaris are led by Dr. Chris Brooks, who gained his PhD from the University of Bristol, studying the impact of human encroachment on the ecology of a migratory herd of zebra and wildebeest in the Makgadikgadi Pans of Botswana. Using his extensive guiding experience throughout Botswana and his zoological background he will bring to life a variety of biological and ecological principles such as the importance and implications of sexual selection, sociality, resource competition, species packing, foraging behaviour and many many more. These biological topics will be discussed in detail along with more applied management and conservation topics.

A specific syllabus can be pre-prepared for each group before coming on safari, or the syllabus can be provided by the random process of the sightings through the safari.

An ecological safari can be incorporated into or attached to an educational field research safari.. These trips are based at one or two sites where we demonstrate and discuss a variety of field research techniques. Field research trips are designed to improve or establish a basic knowledge of sampling and collecting biological and ecological data. Or an ecological safari can be attached onto a cultural safari, that is designed to look at the lifestyle of people in Botswana.