Red Lechwe: The Antelope Built for the Okavango Floodplains
How a wetland antelope runs through water, and where to watch it on safari
A red lechwe’s hindquarters stand higher than its shoulders, and its hooves are long and narrow. Both details look odd on dry ground. They make sense the moment a herd crosses a flooded plain, throwing up spray as it goes. Knee-deep water slows most predators down. It barely slows a lechwe.
Red lechwe are antelope of floodplains and swamp edges. In southern Africa they live in the Okavango and Linyanti wetlands and on the Chobe floodplains, which puts them on the route of almost every water-based safari we run: from the Okavango Panhandle to the floodplains of Khwai and the channels of Nkasa Rupara in Namibia. This guide explains what they are, how their bodies are built for water, and where and when to watch them.
What a red lechwe is
The lechwe (Kobus leche) belongs to the same group of grazing antelope as the waterbuck, the kob and the puku. The red lechwe, Kobus leche leche, is the subspecies of the Okavango, the Linyanti and the upper Zambezi wetlands, with further populations in Zambia, Angola and the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Adults stand around 90 to 100 centimetres at the shoulder and weigh between roughly 50 and 120 kilograms, with males clearly larger than females. The coat is a warm reddish brown above and white underneath. Look at the legs: the fronts of the forelegs are black, which is one of the quickest ways to recognise the species at a distance. There are also white patches around the eyes.
Only the males carry horns. They are long, spiralled and lyre-shaped, sweeping back and then up, and can reach up to around 90 centimetres. In a mixed group, the horns tell you at a glance which animals are rams.
Red lechwe live in herds. Outside the breeding season, these herds are usually made up of one sex; during the mating period, males and females mix. On open floodplains, groups of several hundred animals are possible, and where conditions allow, herds can be far larger.
The species is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. Because they depend on floodplains, their future is tied to the health of the wetlands they live in.
Built for water
For many antelope, water is a place to drink and move on. Red lechwe live in it. Almost every unusual feature of their body has to do with that.
Long hooves for soft ground
Red lechwe hooves are long and relatively narrow, an adaptation to wet, soft and boggy ground. Where a shorter hoof would sink into mud, the lechwe’s spreads the load and gives grip.
Higher hindquarters
The hind legs are long in proportion to the body, so the hindquarters sit noticeably higher than the forequarters. The extra length eases running on marshy soil and gives the bounding stride you see when a herd moves through shallow water: long, springing leaps rather than a trot.
Legs that shed water
Their legs are covered in a water-repellent substance. It helps them run fast in water that would slow most other antelope down,.
Feeding in the shallows
Red lechwe graze on aquatic and semi-aquatic grasses and sedges, the fresh, nutrient-rich growth that the flood leaves behind on the edges of channels and lagoons. They will feed standing in water, sometimes deep enough to reach their shoulders. That gives them access to grazing that most other antelope cannot reach.
Water as an escape route
Lechwe use knee-deep water as protection. Lion, leopard, cheetah, hyena and African wild dog all hunt them. In the shallows, the balance shifts: the lechwe runs and the predator wades. The exception is the crocodile, which turns the same water into a risk, and pythons also take lechwe. If you are unsure which of the dog-like hunters you are watching, our guide to African wild dogs and hyenas sorts them out.
Red lechwe are most active in the cooler hours of the morning and late afternoon and tend to rest through the heat of the middle of the day. For watching them, that matches the rhythm of a safari: early drives, boat trips and mokoro outings, and again from mid-afternoon.
Where and when to see red lechwe
In southern Africa, red lechwe are a wetland species with a limited range. Wherever we take guests to the water in northern Botswana and Namibia’s Zambezi Region, they are part of the picture.
The Okavango Delta and the Panhandle
Red lechwe graze the Delta’s floodplains and the open patches between the papyrus of the Panhandle. When the flood arrives, antelope including red lechwe and sitatunga move into the newly flooded areas to graze, and predators follow. From a boat or a mokoro you often see them at eye level: a herd lifting their heads from the grass, then splashing across a lagoon. Our guide to mokoro safaris explains how those quiet excursions work, and our guide to the Delta through the seasons shows when the water arrives where.
Khwai and Moremi
From O Bona Moremi’s mokoro excursions on the Khwai River, you can watch red lechwe bound through the shallows of the floodplains. Because Khwai is a community concession, game drives here can also continue after dark, when the herds settle and the predators start to move. Our guide to the Khwai Community Area explains how the concession works.
Nkasa Rupara and the Linyanti
Across the border in Namibia, Nkasa Rupara National Park sits on the Linyanti swamps. Red lechwe bound across the shallows here in their hundreds, while reedbuck and waterbuck keep to the margins. On the Botswana side of the same swamps, a ground survey published in 2017 counted roughly 35 to 46 red lechwe per square kilometre in both the dry and the wet season. Our Nkasa Rupara safari guide covers the park in full.
Seasons and calving
Across their range, lechwe mate mainly during the rains, from about November to February. With a gestation of seven to eight months, most calves arrive in the dry season, from around July. In Botswana, however, breeding is not strictly seasonal, so young animals can turn up at other times of year as well.
Telling red lechwe from similar antelope
Two other wetland antelope cause most of the confusion. The puku is smaller, at about 80 centimetres at the shoulder and 70 to 80 kilograms, with a sandy brown coat that is rougher than a lechwe’s. In Nkasa Rupara it is the rarer of the two. The sitatunga lives deep in the papyrus and reed beds. Its splayed hooves let it walk on floating vegetation, and it is shy: seeing one takes patience and some luck. If an antelope is standing in the open shallows in a herd, with black on the front of its forelegs, it is very likely a red lechwe.
How to watch them well
Good views usually come from patience rather than distance covered. Find a stretch of floodplain where a herd is grazing, switch off the engine or let the mokoro drift, and wait. A herd often settles again once nothing approaches it directly, and goes back to feeding.
A herd that suddenly runs for the water is worth following with your binoculars: something has unsettled it, and water is where lechwe go when they feel threatened.
For photographers, the classic image is a lechwe in full stride through shallow water, with spray catching low sun. That light comes early and late in the day, which is also when lechwe are most active. A fast shutter speed and a little room in the frame ahead of the animal make all the difference.
Planning a visit
Where can you see red lechwe in Botswana?
In the wetlands of the north: the Okavango Delta and its Panhandle, the floodplains of Khwai and Moremi, the Linyanti swamps and the Chobe floodplains. They are most easily watched from a boat or mokoro, or on drives along floodplain edges in the cooler hours of the day.
Why do red lechwe run through water?
Water is their safety zone. Their long hooves, higher hindquarters and water-repellent legs let them run fast in knee-deep water, where land predators such as lions and wild dogs are slowed down. The main exception is the crocodile.
Do female red lechwe have horns?
No. Only males carry horns. They are long, spiralled and lyre-shaped and can reach up to around 90 centimetres, which makes it easy to pick out the rams in a mixed herd.
Is the red lechwe endangered?
The lechwe is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List. Because it depends on functioning floodplains, its future is tied to the health of the wetlands it lives in.
What do red lechwe eat?
They graze on aquatic and semi-aquatic grasses and sedges along channels, lagoons and floodplains, often standing in water while they feed. This lets them use grazing that most other antelope cannot reach.
Watch them from the water
Our houseboats on the Panhandle and O Bona Moremi in Khwai put you on the floodplains where red lechwe live. Tell us when you would like to travel and we will suggest the right combination.