Live from Botswana: Wild Animals!

The National Geographic WildCam is rocking my world this week, broadcasting live digital video from the Pete's Pond watering hole, at the Mashatu Reserve, in Botswana. It's a kids' book come to life, with elephants, giraffes, monkeys, zebras, and so on. Right now it's night time in Botswana, so you're not going to see much; check the peak animal-viewing times on the WildCam site. (I did see elephants once in the evening.) And, of course, you won't see catch them there all at once; you must have patience. I recommend running RealPlayer  in theater mode, so that the picture takes up the whole computer screen.

To supplement the WildCam viewing by younger kids, I'd choose Verna Aardema's Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain, and I'll also look for  Rachel Isadora's South African Night at the library. In contrast, Somewhere in Africa, about a boy in busy Cape Town, shows city life. I've read only Aardema's picture book, but the other two have nice reviews.

Comments

[Kelly]

Thanks for the tip, Susan. My kids are going to love this!

[Susan (editor)]

Kelly, enjoy! I can't stay away from WildCam.