Maun

History

The settlement was founded in 1915 as the tribal capital of the Batawana people, and has had a reputation as a hard-living 'Wild West' town which was the economic center of local cattle ranching and hunting operations. However, with the growth of the tourism industry and the completion of the tar road from Nata in the early 1990s, Maun has developed swiftly, losing much of its old town character. It is now home to over 55,000 people. In 1993, Conservation International opened an office in Maun as part of its CI-Okavango programme, which later formed the basis of the Botswana country programme Conservation International Botswana. Maun is today a tourist town, infamous for its infestation of donkeys and to a lesser extent goats. These animals can be seen standing around town as the local farmers arrive in innumerable taxis to sell their wares on the curbside. With the influx of tourism dollars, the typical traditional rondavels have been replaced by square, cinderblock homes roofed with tin and occasionally tiles. Mobile phone service in Maun is excellent out to about , depending on weather. Maun is also becoming a regional transshipment hub for materials and tradespeople who service both the local camps and safari centres and the burgeoning mineral exploration camps in northwestern Botswana. There are a wide variety of services in stores as well as many local entrepreneurs with welding ventures operated from the back of a cart. Tourists fly into the Maun International Airport. Often, these tourists hire fully equipped 4x4 cars for camping and game viewing in the parks, or fly to several tourist camps in the Okavango Delta or the Makgadikgadi.

Most-observed species

• Red-eyed Dove

  Streptopelia semitorquata (Rüppell, 1837) · Aves
  518
• Fork-tailed Drongo

  Dicrurus adsimilis (Bechstein, 1794) · Aves
  505
• Blacksmith Lapwing

  Vanellus armatus (Burchell, 1822) · Aves
  450
• Laughing Dove

  Spilopelia senegalensis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  441
• Ring-necked Dove

  Streptopelia capicola (Sundevall, 1857) · Aves
  421
• Meves's Starling

  Lamprotornis mevesii (Wahlberg, 1856) · Aves
  416
• Burchell's Starling

  Lamprotornis australis (A.Smith, 1836) · Aves
  390
• Gabon Boubou

  Laniarius bicolor (Hartlaub, 1857) · Aves
  389

Most recent

• M 3.8 — 2005-11-28
  71 km NNE of Maun, Botswana