Lonely Planets Wild World

Puffin in a snowstorm. Norway Jan Vermeer | Getty Images

AFRICA

Mariusz Kluzniak | Getty Images South Sudan A verdant carpet, punctuated by rocky outcrops, covers the plateau around Boma National Park. The grassy floodplains host a large number of animals. George Steinmetz | Corbis Begrawiya, Sudan A rider steers his camel past the ancient Meroe Royal Cemetery, where some 100 pyramids contain the remains of the Meroitic Pharaohs that ruled from 700BC to AD 350. Niels van Gijn | Getty Images Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, Botswana An huge salt flat beyond the Okavango Delta, Makgadikgadi is an important munching ground for migrating zebras. George Steinmetz | Corbis Etosha National Park, Namibia Scattered waterholes in Etosha, a vast parched pan dusted with grassland and thorn scrub, find the parks 150 mammal species slurping side-by-side. Wolfgang Kaehler | Getty Images Sahara Desert, Morocco A sandstorm hits Merzouga in Erg Chebbi, a 50km-long wave of wind-sculpted dunes.

Locals are sometimes buried neck-deep in the sand to ward off rheumatism. Ladislav Pavliha | Getty Images Ndop, Cameroon Beautiful but deadly venomous, the boomslang is a big-eyed viper with fangs at the back of its mouth. The name means tree snake in Afrikaans; theyre common in sub-Saharan Africa. Mattias Klum | Getty Images Democratic Republic of the Congo Snaking 4700km through the verdant rainforest of central Africa, the Congo River runs deeper than any other on the planet, reaching down to 220m. Frans Lanting | Getty Images Duba Plains, Okavango Delta, Botswana Relatively new to Southern Africa, the cattle egret provides services for the likes of the buffalo, removing ticks and flies. Beverly Joubert | Getty Images Rub al-Khali, Oman Rub al-Khali, also known as the Empty Quarter, is the planets largest sand desert, spanning Oman, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemen.

It was partially mapped by Wilfrid Thesiger. Malcolm MacGregor | Getty Images Southern Malawi Over 900 African elephants call bio-diverse Liwonde home, alongside 2000 hippos and many other mammals, plus some 600 bird species. Jonathan Gregson South Africa Lesser flamingos are the most numerous of six species, and they wade around lakes across Africa. Naturally white, their colouration is from pigments in the organisms they eat. Hiroya Minakuchi | Getty Images