Bird Spotting on the Okavango

In May of last year a group of explorers and scientists traveled down the Okavango Delta in Botswana. The aim of the expedition was to find new species and collect data on the environment of this mighty river.

Thanks to National Geographic's Into the Okavango you can follow the progression of the expedition and explore the Okavango yourself via an interactive map. Into the Okavango is an animated map which shows the paths taken by four of the explorers. The map automatically plays through the whole expedition but you can take control of the map by pressing the pause button and then using your scroll wheel to progress through the map at your own pace.

As well as the paths taken by the four explorers the map shows the location of bird's spotted along the river during the expedition.

The data from the Okavango expedition and data from previous expeditions of the Okavango Delta is available from the Okavango Database and API. You can navigate to the data by using the 'Data' button on the interactive map. The database and API gives you access to data on animal sightings, audio recordings and photographs.

It is possible to query the database and automatically view the results on an interactive map. For example you can enter 'hippo sightings' into the data explorer and view the results automatically output on a Leaflet powered map.