Nobody we would quote gives a month for the zebra on the Boteti, so here is what the sources do say: the herds arrive on the Makgadikgadi pans between November and March, and they come to the river “at the end of winter” to reach the waterholes that are left. The first statement is Natural Selection’s, who run Jack’s Camp on the pans. The second is Desert & Delta’s, who run Leroo La Tau on the river. Between them lies the loop, and a gap that we are not going to fill with a guess.
Updated 27-Oct-2026
What do the sources actually say about timing?
Three sources, three different kinds of precision. Natural Selection’s Jack’s Camp page puts about 30,000 zebra and wildebeest on the pans from November to March, inside a green season that runs from November to mid-April, and calls it Africa’s second-largest mammal migration. Desert & Delta’s Leroo La Tau page says the zebra migrate to the Boteti “at the end of winter to access the remaining waterholes”, and gives no month. Botswana Tourism’s page for the Makgadikgadi Pans describes great herds of zebra and wildebeest beginning “their westward migration to the Boteti region”, under a note that wildlife viewing is good in the wet season, and also names no month.
| Where the herds are | What the source says | Months given | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| On the pans | About 30,000 zebra and wildebeest arrive; rain turns the pans to grassland | November to March | Natural Selection, Jack’s Camp |
| Moving west | Herds begin a westward migration to the Boteti region | None | Botswana Tourism, Makgadikgadi Pans |
| On the Boteti | Zebra migrate to the river to reach the remaining waterholes | None; “at the end of winter” | Desert & Delta, Leroo La Tau |
Botswana sits south of the equator, so “winter” is the middle of the year rather than the end of it. That is as far as the sources let us go. We have read plenty of month ranges for the Boteti leg elsewhere, and none of them came from the people who run the lodges or the park, so they are not in this post.
Why does the river get the zebra at all?
Because it is the only water for a long way. Leroo La Tau stands on the western bank of the Boteti, which forms the boundary of Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, and the park is arid: the river is its lifeline. When the pans are green the herds have grass out on the flats. When the pans dry, the Boteti is what is left, which is why Desert & Delta talk about “remaining waterholes” rather than a river in full flow. The lodge is built on cliffs more than 10 metres above the riverbed, and there is a hide set into the bank. You do not drive out to find the zebra here. You sit on the correct side of the river and wait for them to need a drink.
Did the Boteti really dry up?
Yes, for the best part of twenty years. The Boteti is the main outflow of the Okavango Delta, and in the mid-1980s the Delta’s floodwaters began to decline. The river stopped short of Leroo La Tau in 1988 and by the mid-1990s had dried up completely, leaving a few waterholes in the riverbed to keep the wildlife going. In 2009, two decades after it stopped, the river flowed past the lodge again. That history explains two things on the lodge’s activity list: boat safaris on the Boteti are offered depending on water levels, not on the calendar, and nobody at the lodge will promise you a particular river on a particular date. A river that has been absent for twenty years has earned a little caution.
Which camp, the river or the pans?
Both, ideally, in the right order. Jack’s Camp sits on the pans themselves, nine tents on the edge of the salt, and its calendar is the one with months attached: dry season April to October for the white crust, quad bikes and sleep-outs; green season November to mid-April for the grass, the herds and, in March and April, flamingos breeding on the pans. Leroo La Tau is the river end. Its daily game drives go into Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, but Desert & Delta are clear that the salt pans themselves are not on the daily schedule from the lodge; a three-night stay unlocks a day trip to Nxai Pan and Baines Baobabs and a sleep-out on the salt. Jack’s own page suggests pairing the two if the zebra are the point, and we agree, with the caveat above: the pans leg has dates, the river leg has a season.
The river has other tenants while you wait. When we wrote up our own stay at Leroo La Tau in Nov-2023, the lions had chased elephants through camp at dawn and then settled on the timber decks of the tents, which is not on the activity list but did rather fill the morning.
So when should you book?
If you want the green-season herds on the pans, November to March is sourced and you can book against it. If you want the zebra lined up on the Boteti below your deck, you are booking against “the end of winter” and nothing more precise than that, so ask the lodge directly what they are seeing before you commit to dates. We would rather tell you that than invent a month and have the zebra prove us wrong.
The Leroo La Tau page has the lodge itself; the rest of the country, river camps and all, is on our Botswana page. Tell us which end of the loop you are after and we will come back with options.
