Talk:Kalahari Desert

documentary?
There is a documentary about the desert that used to get shown on HBO fairly regularly back in the 90s. It was a catch all talking about the plants, animals and bushmen. Two of the major sections of the documentary mention the Pelicans that would often have young in the temporary water basins, and how if the rainy season didn't come soon enough the parents leaving their young, and this long march of young pelicans dying in the desert. And the other just hilarious section of the documentary was about this river that doesn't reach the ocean, and it has trees and plants growing along it to the middle of the desert. And some of those trees are fruit trees and when they bear fruit its like this huge boon to the animals living there. But the funny part was eventually the fruit on the ground would ferment in the heat, so the animals eating it would get drunk.

Anyone know about that documentary and the name of it? It was one of the more fascinating nature programs I've watched and is about this Desert.96.31.177.52 (talk) 05:27, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

the movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_Are_Beautiful_People — Preceding unsigned comment added by 184.174.174.49 (talk) 13:44, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

Boar?
"There hora are some wild boar located on the Kalahari Desert and are prized for their instinctive and infected taste." What is the meaning of this sentence? --XXxJediKnightxXx (talk) 19:32, 17 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I edited out the boar sentence until somebody can explain it.--XXxJediKnightxXx (talk) 15:21, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

Fossil Desert
"Parts of the Kalahari receive over 250 mm of erratic rainfall annually ... making the Kalahari a fossil desert."


 * I don't find the term fossil desert on Google. Can anyone define?


 * Same as a paleodesert, a fossil desert is basically a region that used to be a desert but which now gets more precipitation. It retains a lot of the desert geology such as sand dunes, though. I just added some stuff on this to the desert article, but I didn't have enough to create a whole separate article on it. Bryan 20:42, 8 May 2004 (UTC)


 * I have, therefore, changed the link from to point to the section in the desert page :Aidan (Not affiliated with the original question, just passing through)

Have edited this page, removing the obscenities that appeared when the edit page showed up. Whoever put them in is obviously an incredibly mature person, who has a great deal of time to make fun of a people whom they neither understand nor want to understand. Congratulations on the perpetuation of Bushman-hating. !xuxobo


 * Don't let them get to you - vile obscenities appear on any page that gets anon traffic. Sometimes you can even tell which school has set an assignment on a given topic... Makes you pray for the date assignments are due and the horrid children move on to destroy a different page. (*sigh*) Well done on the quick fix, btw! JackyR 15:30, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Use of the word desert
There seems to be some confusion here concerning the word desert in relation to the Kalahari.

Geographically, the Kalahari is best defined by the extent of `The Kalahari Sands' which are an ancient wind-blown deposit and the youngest unit of the Kalahari Group that cover over 2.5 million km² of Southern Africa. The region has indeed experience both wetter and drier conditions than today but that is not the reason it is called a desert. The term is misleading and few geographers or ecologists use it. Rather the terms hyper-arid, arid and semi-arid are preferred and refer to the balance between mean annual rainfall and potential evapotranspiration. This changes in broadly south west (around Bokspits in Botswana) to north east (up past Tsabong, Kang, Ghanzi towards Maun) direction as it gets progressively wetter. It is only called a desert because of the lack of surface water.

For excellent reviews on the physical and ecological characteristics of the Kalahari refer to either Michael Main's book, "Of dune and delta", or the now harder to find Thomas and Shaw "The Kalahari Environment".....

User:Tom 14:38, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

hello

Green sand
"The Kalahari is known for its blue sand. This odd occurrence is a result of its location near many rivers"

How does the location of rivers turn sand pink? Would it not be better to mention the mineral composition or something like that? 195.190.143.254 07:13, 26 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Yeah, will remove this as incomprehensible. In fact the shale in this area is purple, and is presumably the source of the sand, but that doesn't really help. JackyR | Talk 23:33, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

size (area)

 * List of deserts by area shows it as only 260,000 km² (100,000 sq. mi.) — presumably referring (quite properly!) to the Kalahari Desert in the narrow sense: the true desert portion only.
 * If it is 900,000 km² as stated in the present article, then "562,500 sq. mi." is a mis-translation, should be: 350,000 sq. mi.
 * If it takes up "most of the area" of the Kalahari Basin, as stated there, then it must be greater than 1,200,000 km²

Haim Berman 11:16, 16 May 2007 (UTC)


 * thanks, i see the "562,500 sq. mi." has been reduced to 362,500 sq. mi.
 * — Haim Berman 14:34, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

South African nuclear programme in the desert
According to The Telegraph: "Britain learned of South African nuclear programme from USSR" --Ezzex (talk) 00:37, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Americana?
The mention at the top of the page of the Kalahari being referred to as Dorsland in Americana is linked inappropriately. Right now it links to the page on the American cultural items. I'm unfamiliar with Americana as a language or even creole except in African American populations, which doesn't seem like a relevant reference here. Perhaps this should be red linked to an Americana (language) article? Dorsland is a term in Afrikaans for the area so there's some justification for keeping it, but switching the language origin in the event that no one else is aware of a language by the name of Americana that is relevant in the area. aremisasling (talk) 14:34, 26 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I think it may have been vandalism anyway. 1brettsnyder (talk) 15:51, 30 August 2010 (UTC)

Deleting reference to "Tswalu Kalahari Reserve"
I'm going to be bold and delete the reference to the "Tswalu Kalahari Reserve", as it appears to be WP:LINKSPAM. It's the only edit for User:Russ2209. If it is notable, then maybe it is worth re-inserting the "Tswalu Kalahari Reserve" into the list, but that's beyond my knowledge. At the very least, IMHO, the link should not be there, it should no be bolded, and it should fit naturally into the surrounding sentence structure.

Diff of the original edit:

Diff of my revert:

Removed text:
 * the Tswalu Kalahari Reserve - www.tswalu.com, owned by the Oppenheimer family, is the largest private game reserve in South Africa

DonkeyKong64 (Mathematician / Mathematical Modeller) (talk) 06:28, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Possible Offense
Just thought I'd mention it that the white people in South Africa find it mildly offensive to be called Europeans. The accepted nomenclature is either Afrikaner / English or South African

- Neil Meyer — Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.132.36.144 (talk) 15:51, 24 June 2011 (UTC)

kalahari?
this is not named kalahari it is botrasikja in real.please change.me an afrikaner so telling you diss. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.170.80.227 (talk) 05:47, 6 November 2011 (UTC)

Tomato?
The article states that the English Tomato is endemic to the Kalahari desert, but I can't find any evidence of this online. Is anyone able to provide a citation? Or perhaps it should be removed... 2.28.146.0 (talk) 17:28, 3 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the heads-up. Total garbage. Removed it. JonRichfield (talk) 08:04, 4 January 2013 (UTC)

Tomatoes, like their close cousins potatoes, originated in South America, not South Africa.Youngnoah (talk) 20:47, 9 February 2019 (UTC)Youngnoah

Hottest temperature ever in the Kalahari : 44.8°C in 2012 at Twee Rivieren ( ≈ 25.789 °S, ≈ 20.016 °E), South Africa, in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park ???
Hottest temperatures are often subject to discussion : their validity are often questionable for diverse reasons.

It seems that the highest ever temperatures ever recorded in South Africa are above 48°C. Some are talking of 53°C in the Richtersveld Transfrontier Park but the latter is located in the Nama Karoo ecoregion close to the Succulent Karoo ecoregion : therefore the Richtersveld Transfrontier Park is outside the Kalahari desert.

The highest temperature recorded in the Kalahari I have ever found is 44.8°C in 2012 at Twee Rivieren ( ≈ 25.789 °S, ≈ 20.016 °E), South Africa, in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (http://www.mherrera.org/records.htm) but perhaps higher temperatures have been recorded in the Kalahari.

Do not hesitate to edit the article in case you have found higher temperatures than 44.8°C in the Kalahari desert which roughly corresponds to the union of the "Kalahari xeric savanna AT1309" and the "Kalahari Acacia-Baikiaea woodlands AT0709" WWF ecoregions. Carlo Colussi (talk) 12:36, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

Kalahari, San and diamonds
This prosaic heading got my attention. The paragraph that follows appears to rely upon a single book's claims regarding the influence of the DeBeers corporation on the removal of the San from their native lands. DeBeers is not mentioned in the news article about the UN report, nor is it mentioned in the wiki article linked from "See Also".

I am not arguing the merits of any author's claims. In fact, who would be surprised if such claims were true? Without building a better explanation of the DeBeers connection however, this paragraph seems spurious. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.51.36.221 (talk) 16:34, 29 September 2016 (UTC)

When is the "wet season" ?
First paragraph under "Climate" contains the sentence: "...and is semi-arid with the dry season during the "cold" season, the coldest six months of the year."

The second paragraph (single sentence ) states: "As in the Sahel, the wet season in the Kalahari is during the six coldest months of the year."

So the first says the cold season is dry, the second says the cold season is wet. Which is it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Xtal42 (talk • contribs) 07:23, 18 September 2017 (UTC)

Breached Dikes and Abandoned Agriculture Fields of the Kalahari
User Dodger87 has twice removed an article that has extensive satellite photos of breached dikes and abandoned agricultural fields, on his pretense that viewing the photos is "original research" because they are not contained in a 'scholarly article'. Here are some examples of abandoned agricultural fields: northern edge of Geelvloer:  https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.4653002,20.1601533,508m/data=!3m1!1e3   southern edge of verneukpan: https://www.google.com/maps/@-30.0208002,21.0940735,422m/data=!3m1!1e3   northern edge of grootvloer (great floor): https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.8882722,20.4688145,294m/data=!3m1!1e3    these abandoned farmlands are extensive throughout the kalahri, as per the article that Dodger87 keeps deleting. This is self-obvious. Speculation as to the age or cause of abandonment might require a scholarly article, but the fact that those fields are abandoned, and the land now very dry, is self-evident: http://www.sciforums.com/threads/ancient-dikes-dams-and-reservoirs-of-the-kalahari-region.159050/     Likewise, the breached dikes are self-evident, in that they no longer contain  water, and the water channel that breached a dike is outlined by vegetation. This ties in quite well with the fact that the land was once much wetter, as per the Kalahari Desert article itself. Accordingly, I am again reverting Dodger87, and if he believes I should be reverted, he should first address his reason here, so a discussion/talk could be obtained. Youngnoah (talk) 00:13, 18 December 2019 (UTC)Youngnoah

Additional Google-Earth links to abandoned agricultural fields of the  Kalahari:

https://www.google.com/maps/@-26.3113038,19.1173328,279m/data=!3m1!1e3 south of Koes https://www.google.com/maps/@-26.2820997,19.0207269,220m/data=!3m1!1e3 south of Koes; note animal trails on top that lead to water tank https://www.google.com/maps/@-26.2503594,18.7625207,183m/data=!3m1!1e3 south of Koes https://www.google.com/maps/@-26.2159944,18.6866551,220m/data=!3m1!1e3 southwest of Koes https://www.google.com/maps/@-26.1325367,18.7088435,220m/data=!3m1!1e3 west of Koes, southern side of Grootvaal-graspan https://www.google.com/maps/@-26.1368925,18.700611,167m/data=!3m1!1e3 grootvaal-graspan

Youngnoah (talk) 02:17, 18 December 2019 (UTC)Youngnoah

'...abandoned extensive roadways...' I've been unable to find a single scholarly or mainstream account of ancient 'roadways', so called. Until verifiable information appears, I think any such mention should be removed. RobotBoy66 (talk) 01:53, 19 December 2022 (UTC)

Conformed Oxford Comma Use
The writing in this article didn't have any consistent use of the Oxford comma or no Oxford comma, so I went ahead and conformed what I could to what was used most often (Oxford comma). PolyversialMind (talk) 04:30, 2 May 2023 (UTC)