Kgalagadi

Its origins go back to 1931 with the creation of Kalahari Gemsbok National Park on the South African side; in 2000, after decades of informal joint management across an unfenced border, South Africa and Botswana formally merged their respective parks to create the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, one of the first formally unified peace parks in Africa, with no internal border restrictions for wildlife or, largely, for visitors holding the right permits. The park protects a semi-desert ecosystem of red Kalahari dunes and is celebrated for its dark-maned lions, nicknamed the "black lions of the Kalahari", whose darker colouring — still under scientific study — may be tied to heat regulation or to signalling social standing between males.