Okavango Delta, Botswana Photograph by © WWF-Canon/Martin HARVEY   Africa: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia Flooded Grasslands and Savannas   59,300 square miles (153,500 square kilometers) -- about the size of Georgia and Rhode Island combined Relatively Stable/Intact

· Life-Giving Floodplains
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Life-Giving Floodplains

If you were to spend time in the Zambezian Flooded Grasslands ecoregion, you'd have a chance to see an abundance of wildlife ranging from crocodiles to grazing sitatungas (swamp dwelling antelopes) to saddlebill storks. A series of floodplains within this ecoregion provides shelter, food, and water to these and other living things, sustaining them even during the demanding dry season.

Special Features

The wetlands of this ecoregion are spread out in large patches across a broad area of eastern and southern Africa, from Botswana to northern Tanzania. Most are located within miombo and mopane regions where rainfall is relatively low and seasonal flooding occurs. Grasses and sedges dominate, but a few areas support swamp forest.

	The lechwe, or marsh antelope, has splayed, elongated hooves that help it walk on muddy terrain.

Wild Side

Large numbers of plants, fish, mammals, and amphibians depend on the floodplains of this ecoregion for food and habitat. Floodplain pastures support large populations of grazing animals such as waterbucks, pukus (antelope), lechwes (marsh antelope), buffalo, elands, wildebeest, and elephants. Many of these mammals move seasonally with the rise and fall of the floodwaters, following the changing vegetation. Wetland birds such as slaty egrets, shoebills, and wattled cranes feed on small vertebrates and large invertebrates, as well as floodplain vegetation. Crocodiles and hippopotamuses spend long hours in the wetland waters.

Cause for Concern

Many of the floodplains of this region are largely untouched, but habitat loss is on the rise because of river damming and increased farming. Although the region has many protected areas, these areas have sometimes been subject to poaching, illegal grazing, fires, and other problems. Human population density is generally low, in part because the region contains so many disease-carrying organisms.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.