The majority of the reserve around the Jao Flats is a superb area for lion and lechwe, which are both exceedingly common. The lechwe occur in large herds and will frequently startle; listen to them splash as they run across the flooded grasslands. The lion are certainly the dominant predator, with a number of large prides in the area.
Other game is usually present in lower densities, but in this eastern section you can expect to spot blue wildebeest, zebra, small groups of tsessebe and elephants in the area. Kwetsani, in particular, is noted for the increasingly relaxed bushbuck which seem to frequent its island. Sable and roan are virtually never seen here, but the large areas of papyrus are home to sitatunga, though as ever these take a lot of effort to see.
Lone male buffalo will pass through, especially from June onwards, and later in the dry season larger breeding herds move across the reserve. Elephants have a broadly similar pattern, and their herds get larger as the dry season progresses.
Cheetah aren’t usually seen on the eastern side of the reserve until the waters have receded a long way, which means around October. Then they’ll move west again as the waters rise in February. Leopard and hyena are seen occasionally but infrequently throughout the reserve and the year. Sightings of wild dog are very unusual (for example, there was one sighting during the whole of 1999 – but things are improving).
The western area of the reserve, accessed from Tubu, have a much drier habitat around them and you can expect giraffe, kudu, and impala here in the mixed acacia woodlands.
Like most of the reserves around the Okavango, Jao Reserve had previously been used for hunting. However, questions have been raised if the hunting in this area was ethical or not. It is alleged that leopard were baited and snared in numbers, and hyena shot. This would have enabled the lion prides to grow with little competition, thus satisfying the demand for lion trophies – and explain the present very high numbers of lion and relative scarcity of other predators.
Fortunately all hunting has been stopped in the Jao Reserve for several years, and the animal populations should be slowly returning to a more natural balance.