Meerkats in Botswana
The Makgadikgadi is among the best places on earth to see meerkats, because years of patient research have left several colonies semi-habituated to people. They are not tame and cannot be touched or fed, and having no high ground on an open salt pan they will readily climb a seated visitor to use as a lookout post. Wild meerkats elsewhere in Botswana are skittish and difficult, which is what makes the Makgadikgadi experience unusual.
What Habituated Actually Means
This distinction matters and it is worth being precise about, because it is easy to misread the experience.
Habituated does not mean tame. These are entirely wild animals. You cannot pet them, you cannot feed them and they are not fed to bring them out.
What it means is that researchers have sat quietly with the same family groups over years until the meerkats concluded that people are not a threat. Having reached that conclusion, they largely ignore visitors and get on with their day.
To a meerkat, a seated human is simply a tall object in a place with very little high ground, and a sentry needing elevation will use whatever is available.
The habituation programme at the Makgadikgadi camps is ongoing rather than finished, and guides manage the interaction carefully.
Anywhere else in Botswana, including the Kgalagadi and the Central Kalahari, meerkats are naturally wary and easily spooked. Seeing them well takes considerable time and patience.
A meerkat sentry needs height and a salt pan offers none. Sit still long enough and one will climb your leg and stand on your shoulder or head, scanning the horizon while using you as furniture.
Where to See Them
The Makgadikgadi is the answer and the reason is the habituation work rather than the numbers.
Camps on the Ntwetwe concession run the experience, principally Jack’s Camp, San Camp and Camp Kalahari, which sit close enough together to share colonies. Planet Baobab near Gweta uses a separate colony and is the affordable option.
The salt pan complex covers a very large area and holds numerous meerkat families, known as clans or mobs.
Elsewhere, the Central Kalahari and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park both hold good numbers of genuinely wild meerkats. You may spot a clan foraging with sentinels standing guard, or catch them at a burrow or crossing a track, and it takes luck.
The northern reaches of the Central Kalahari have them, as does the wider Khutse area.
A note worth having: colonies move. A group can disappear into the national park for weeks, and camps work several colonies for exactly that reason.
What the Experience Involves
The visit follows a fixed rhythm dictated entirely by the animals.
You leave camp before dawn, driving to the burrow so as to be in position as the sun warms the ground. Meerkats emerge to warm themselves before foraging, and that window is the whole activity.
Guides locate the group first, sometimes with binoculars from a distance, and position guests before anything appears.
What follows is a period of sitting still while a family emerges, stretches, sunbathes and begins to move. The sentry takes up a lookout position, others start digging for scorpions, grubs and insects.
Sessions typically last around an hour, sometimes fifty minutes, ending when the mob heads off to forage in earnest and moves beyond following.
Sunset visits are also offered at some camps, when the group returns to the burrow.
Guides will usually explain the individuals as you watch. Habituated colonies are studied closely enough that the dominant female, her mate and the current litter are all known, along with which animals have moved in from other groups and which are likely to disperse. That running commentary turns an hour of watching small mammals dig into something closer to following a family, and it is the reason people who expected to be mildly amused come away describing it as a highlight of the whole trip.
Meerkat Behaviour
Knowing what you are looking at makes the hour considerably richer.
Meerkats are social mongooses living in mobs, with a dominant breeding pair and a complex division of labour. Everything they do depends on cooperation.
The sentry system is the famous part. One animal always stands guard on the highest available point while the others forage with their heads down, and it calls a warning that sends the entire group underground.
Threats come from the air as much as the ground. Eagles are the principal danger, alongside snakes, and a cobra can take a serious toll on a colony.
They dig constantly, foraging for scorpions, beetles, larvae and small reptiles, and they are largely immune to scorpion venom.
On cold mornings they huddle for warmth, and a visitor sitting still may find one leaning against them for the same reason.
Makgadikgadi camps. Semi-habituated colonies visited at sunrise or sunset, close observation with animals using visitors as lookout posts. The reliable option and among the best anywhere in Africa.
Central Kalahari and Kgalagadi. Genuinely wild meerkats, wary and easily spooked. Sightings take time and patience, usually at burrows or crossing tracks, with sentinels visible while a clan forages.
Planet Baobab. Near Gweta, using a separate colony from the luxury camps. Aimed at self-drivers, with activities bookable individually and accommodation in traditional-style huts.
The Rules and the Etiquette
The experience works because of how visitors behave, and the rules are simple.
Do not touch them, even if one climbs on you. Being used as a lookout post is fine; reaching up to a meerkat on your shoulder is not.
Do not feed them, ever. Nothing would undo years of habituation faster.
Sit still and move slowly. Sudden movement is what breaks the arrangement, and a group that gets a fright will go underground and stay there.
Stay low. Sitting or kneeling puts you at their level and makes you a usable lookout; standing over a burrow does neither.
Follow the guide’s instructions on distance and positioning, particularly around the burrow entrance itself, which should not be blocked.
Keep noise down, including camera shutters where possible.
One further point about children, since families ask. The meerkat visit is among the best activities in Botswana for younger children, requiring no early game drive endurance and delivering close animal contact within a fixed hour. It also demands sitting still, which is the part worth preparing them for before you arrive rather than at the burrow.
Photographing Meerkats
They are among the easier and more rewarding subjects in Botswana, with a few caveats.
Get low. A camera at meerkat height produces a completely different image from one shot down at them, and lying flat is worth the dust.
A shorter lens works better than a long one, since the animals come close and a telephoto is unusable at two metres. A standard zoom covers most of it.
First light is the whole point. Meerkats emerging into low golden sun, standing upright and backlit, is the classic image and it lasts perhaps forty minutes.
Focus on behaviour rather than portraits. The sentry on a mound, the huddle, the digging and the pups tumbling are what make a set of pictures rather than a single one.
Bring something to lie on, since the ground is cold before dawn and gritty throughout.
Patience pays here more than technique. The best frames tend to come in the last ten minutes, once the group has settled and stopped registering the vehicle and the people, and photographers who put the camera down for a while and simply watch tend to read the behaviour better when they pick it up again. Habituated colonies feature on routes like the 9 day Okavango, Makgadikgadi and Chobe safari.
Book the meerkat visit for a morning rather than an evening if you have the choice. The emergence at sunrise, when the group comes out to warm up before foraging, gives longer and better observation than the return at dusk, and the light is better.
Frequently Asked Questions About Meerkats in Botswana
Where can you see meerkats in Botswana?
The Makgadikgadi Pans are the best place, with camps on the Ntwetwe concession including Jack’s Camp, San Camp and Camp Kalahari running visits to semi-habituated colonies, and Planet Baobab near Gweta using a separate colony at lower cost. The Central Kalahari and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park hold genuinely wild meerkats that are wary and easily spooked, so sightings there take considerable time and patience.
Are the Makgadikgadi meerkats tame?
No. They are entirely wild and habituated rather than tame, which means researchers sat quietly with the same family groups over years until the animals concluded that people are not a threat. They cannot be touched or fed and are not baited to appear. To a meerkat a seated human is simply a tall object on ground with no high points, so a sentry needing elevation will climb one to scan the horizon.
Will meerkats climb on you?
Frequently, if you sit still and stay low. With no termite mounds or trees on an open salt pan, a sentry will use whatever height is available, and a seated visitor’s shoulder or head serves the purpose. On cold mornings they may also lean against you for warmth. You must not touch them in return, and reaching up to an animal on your shoulder is exactly what would undo the habituation.
What time of day is the meerkat experience?
Sunrise, usually, with some camps also offering sunset visits. You leave camp before dawn to be in position as the sun warms the ground, since meerkats emerge to warm themselves before foraging and that window is the activity. Sessions typically last around an hour, ending when the mob heads off to forage in earnest. Guides locate the group first, sometimes with binoculars from a distance, before positioning guests.
What do meerkats eat and what eats them?
They dig constantly for scorpions, beetles, larvae and small reptiles, and are largely immune to scorpion venom. Their principal threats come from the air, with eagles the main danger, alongside snakes, and a cobra can take a serious toll on a colony. That is why the sentry system exists, with one animal always standing guard on the highest available point while the others forage with heads down.
Can you see meerkats without staying at a luxury camp?
Yes. Planet Baobab near Gweta uses its own colony and is aimed at self-drivers, with accommodation in traditional-style mud and grass huts and activities bookable individually, at considerably lower cost than the Ntwetwe concession camps. Independently finding wild meerkats in the Central Kalahari or Kgalagadi is possible but they are skittish and will run, so a habituated colony with a guide is a very different experience.
Booking Your Botswana Trip
The safari companies and tour operators listed on this website put trips like this together for a living and know which camps, guides and routes actually deliver. We are an independent guide to Botswana; we do not book or sell tours ourselves.
When you are ready, arrange your safari, tour or holiday with one of the recognised operators listed here. Tell them your dates and what matters most, and a real person, not a form, will handle the itinerary, park bookings and logistics for you.