The Okavango Delta is a place like nowhere else on earth. It’s a vast swampy inland delta where a river disappears instead of emptying into an ocean. The Okavango River arises in the Angola highlands in the north, carrying rainwater from the mountains. It takes a couple of months for this water to reach the Kalahari, flooding the desert and turning it into a watery paradise that attracts all kinds of animals from kilometers around creating one of Africa’s greatest concentrations of wildlife. The floodwater drives millions of termites from their shelters in the large mounds and they become prey to birds, reptiles and small carnivorous mammals.

A termite mound and acacia in Okavango Delta, Botswana. Image credit: Hector Garcia Serrano/Shutterstock.com