Flora

Savuti's habitat is a mostly undistinguished thick thorny scrub, with camelthorn (Acacia erioloba) and silver terminalia (Terminalia sericea) making up much of it, though there are also large areas of mopane (Colophospermum mopane). You'll also find substantial stands of shaving-brush combretum (Combretum mossambicense) and Kalahari appleleaf (Lonchocarpus nelsii), and it's perhaps the most westerly area where you can find the lovely paper-bark albezia (Albezia tanganyicensis). Dotted all over the drier parts of the area are landmark baobab trees (Adansonia digitata); their ability to survive being ring-barked is essential to survival here.

The main contrast to these wooded areas is the Savuti Marsh. Here open plains covered with a variety of perennial grasses stand above the (geologically) recent alluvial deposits of the channel. These grasses are tolerant of the slightly higher salinity levels present, and some are particularly nutritious and a great attraction for the game when there's moisture about.

Here you'll also see the skeletons of dead trees, still standing in the flat grasslands. These were mostly camelthorns, umbrella thorns (Acacia tortilis) and leadwoods (Combretum imberbe) which are thought to have seeded and grown up between the 1880s and the 1950s, when the marsh was dry. Then when it flooded in the late 1950s they were drowned – though the hard, termite-resistant wood still stands.

On the southern side of the marsh you can see the bush gradually starting to invade the grasslands again, with the distinctive, low 'round mounds' of candle-pod acacia (Acacia hebeclada) leading the aggressors.

Fauna

At the heart of the park, Savuti sees most of the park's species with the exception of the Chobe bushbuck and the water-loving species. Reedbuck and waterbuck used to occur here, but even they have deserted with the demise of the channel's flow.

Now much of the interest is concentrated around the three remaining waterholes, and especially the old one pumped by the National Parks department. Here there's invariably a lot of game. Lion are frequently found lying around, and big herds will pause as they approach, or wait until their thirst overcomes their fear.

Savuti's elephants are notable for a number of old bulls which live in the area permanently, and are often individuals known to guides who have spent a lot of time in the area. These are augmented by large breeding herds which pass through. Whenever it's dry you can be sure that with such limited water resources, there's action and jostling for drinking positions at the waterhole.

Visiting in recent years, at least one of the local lion prides has grown so large that they will kill elephants to satisfy their hunger – traumatising the local elephants in the process. (The Khwai River area in Moremi has a similar phenomenon.)

Spotted hyena have always been numerous and very noticeable at Savuti. In the late 1980s and early '90s they would appear at the campsite, skulking around the bins, as soon as the sun set. After dark, and when people had gone to sleep, they'd pick up anything that they could carry, and eat anything small enough to crunch up – including, I was once assured, a glass lens from a 35mm camera! My aluminium camping cooker was stolen by a hyena once at Savuti, and still bears the scars of its strong jaw.

S M Cooper (see Further Reading) studied the clan sizes here in 1986–88, and found that there were five territorial clans in the area, and a number of transient animals passing through. The clans averaged about 18 adult females each, six males, five of unknown sex and ten cubs under two years of age – so around 39 members of each clan. They tend to prey on reliable, low-density resident game species like impala and warthog throughout the year, and augment this by feasting on the herds as they pass through the area, especially the new-born zebra foals.

Despite the presence of so many lion and hyena, leopards also do well here, perhaps helped by the presence of the rocky kopjes which make a perfect habitat for them. Daryl and Sharna Balfour have some lovely shots of leopard at Savuti in their book on Chobe (see Further Reading).

Once driving with one of Lloyd's guides (who shall remain nameless) we realised that there was an early-morning commotion in the air, and followed this to a young female leopard that had just killed an impala. Nearby the guide knew that she had a cub to feed. However, our vehicle's approach had, unwittingly, frightened the leopard off its kill, and soon after we arrived so did a hyena – which proceeded to claim the prize.

Such was the maverick nature of Lloyd's Camp that this guide simply jumped out of the cab, grabbed the hind quarters of the impala, and started upon a tug-of-war with the hyena for the carcass. Spurred on by this, and the realisation that the cub would otherwise miss a meal, I joined in. Eventually we won the carcass and hauled it up onto a low branch hoping that the leopard would reclaim it.

But nature, once upset, isn't so easily put right. As we pulled back from the scene the hyena returned, stretched up on its hind legs, and plucked the impala from the branch with ease. Others swiftly joined it, devouring it within minutes. The leopard had already given up and disappeared, perhaps in disgust.

In the wet season there are still movements of buffalo, zebra and wildebeest which come onto the marsh to graze, though the huge herds of buffalo that came when the channel flowed have now stopped coming. In his book on Botswana in 1968, Alec Campbell describes the scene on the marsh when the channel was flowing:

Here the Savuti Channel carries water from the Linyanti... forming a marsh about a meter deep. From June to December huge herds of buffalo visit the marsh to feed in the surrounding scrub mophane and one can see as many as 6,000 daily. Out on the flats which surround it on the southern and western sides are herds of bull elephants, wildebeest, impala, giraffe, tsessebe and sometimes large numbers of zebra. Lion are also quite common.

Cow elephants with their young spend much time in the taller mophane to the east of the marsh but come down to drink in the afternoon. Hippopotami and waterbuck are to be seen in the Channel especially near the mouth where it enters the marsh.'

Numbers now probably don't match what was seen then, though April–May is still the prime time for the zebra and wildebeest herds to pass through, usually foaling here as they go. The precise timing of this is heavily dependent upon the local rainfall patterns.
The dry season can witness large numbers of tsessebe move onto the marsh area to graze. Occasionally, at the end of the dry season, oryx have been known to appear at the south end of the marsh, but they are very uncommon this far north. Always you'll find groups of giraffe in the acacia woodlands on the edge of the marsh and all over the area.

Finally, if you're anywhere around the hills in the area, then P C Viljoen (see Further Reading) notes that several klipspringer were spotted here on the Qumxhwaa Hill (Quarry Hill) in 1978 and 1979. If there are still individuals here then they are very isolated, as the nearest significant klipspringer population is probably in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park, about 130km to the east.

Birdlife

The list of bird species found in Savuti runs to over three hundred species, but a couple of the more unusual include the Marico flycatcher, crimson boubou, capped wheatears, pennant-winged nightjars (only during the summer, October–January; look especially on the roads at dusk) and Bradfield's hornbill.

In addition, when you're in areas of acacia woodland then keep a look out for racket-tailed rollers and the spectacular displays of the male broad-tailed paradise whydahs in breeding plumage (February–April).

On Savuti's open areas you'll find the occasional secretary birds, Stanley's bustard, and plenty of the larger kori bustards. The Balfours' coffee-table book on Chobe (see Further Reading) has a wonderful picture of a carmine bee-eater using the back of a kori bustard as a perch from which to hawk around for insects. Kori bustards are Africa's heaviest flying birds, but heavier still are the flightless ostrich, which can sometimes be seen here. During the summer, Abdim's and white storks congregate in numbers on the marsh.