From the point of view of most herbivores, the wet season is much more pleasant than the dry season. During the wet, most animals live in enormous salad bowls, with convenient pools of water nearby. It's a good time to have their young and eat themselves into good condition.

Visitors who have been to Africa before will often find something special about seeing all the animals when they aren't struggling with thirst and a lack of vegetation. It gives a sense of luxuriance and plenty, which isn't there in the dry season.

Before people started to have a big impact on Botswana's landscape (which, arguably, has only been in the last 150 years or so), many of the animals here used to follow regular seasonal migration patterns, often over very large distances. It was the same throughout Africa originally; many species, and especially the herding species of plains game, would move around to where the best food sources were to be found.

Despite the changes wreaked by man since then, the remnants of these migrations still happen. Understanding them will help you to work out what the best times are to visit the various parks.

The finer details of each area are covered under sections entitled When to go which are spread throughout the book, but in very general terms:

Chobe

Areas with riverfront are at their best July–October; the Savuti Marsh area is totally different, with some good game all year. Savuti Marsh is probably at its best around March–April–May and (if the rains have arrived) November – when herds of zebra and plains game are passing through.

Kwando/Linyanti

Follows the same basic pattern as Chobe's riverfronts – so is best in the late dry season, when it's the only source of water for miles around.

Okavango/Moremi

The central areas of the Delta have permanent water all year, and equally permanent populations of animals all year round. Thus many game species stay here all year, and densities of animals (excluding elephant and buffalo) don't change that much. However, in the dry season the permanent populations of game found on the edges of the Delta are swelled by an influx of animals from the parched Kalahari. Thus, the game densities on the accessible edges of the Delta often rise significantly as the dry season progresses.

Nxai Pan

Can be erratic, but always used to be at its best when wet, from December to March – though often still very good into May and June. However, the artificial pumping of a waterhole a couple of kilometres north of the gate has changed this pattern. During the rest of the year, you'll find plains game staying here in numbers, often accompanied by a few lion.

Makgadikgadi Pans

The pans themselves can be superb when wet, December to April; large herds of zebra and other plains grazers appear. On their western border, the Boteti River (or at least its channel, as the river seldom flows!) follows the opposite pattern, attracting game at the end of the dry season, around August to early November.

Central Kalahari

Game congregates in the huge grassy valleys here, most famously in Deception Valley, when the vegetation is lush during and shortly after the rains, from about December to May.

The bottom line is probably that if game viewing is your over-riding priority, or this is one of your first trips to Africa, then you'll be better visiting during the dry season. Then the animals are much easier to spot, as no thick vegetation obscures the view, and they are forced to congregate at well-known water points, like rivers, where they can be observed.

However, more experienced African travellers are missing out if they never travel during the rains – as it's completely different and can be superb. A few specific highlights of Botswana's animal calendar would include:

Feb–Apr
Most of the herbivores are in their best condition, having fed well on the lush vegetation. It's a perfect time to catch huge concentrations of springbok and oryx on the short grass plains of the Central Kalahari's fossil river valleys.

May–Jun
Probably my favourite time to be in Botswana (and most of southern Africa!). It's a great time to visit Savuti Marsh, and in the Okavango the floodwater moves down the Delta.

Jul–Aug
Leopard are generally easier to see, as they come out more during the twilight hours. Later in the year, they often wait until it is cool, only appearing later in the evening.

Sep–Oct
Elephant and buffalo tend to amalgamate into larger, more spectacular herds. (They splinter again just before the rains.) Lion sights become more frequent, as they spend more time near the limited remaining water sources.

Nov
Can be a great month as often the rains haven't arrived, leaving amazing game densities in the riverfront areas (yet visitors are thin on the ground and prices are low). However, too many cloudless days can mean high midday temperatures.

Dec–Jan
Crocodiles are nesting, and so found on or near exposed sandbanks. Various baby animals start to appear in November, followed by most of the mammals that calve sometime during the rainy season.