Lake Chew Bahir (meaning salt sea in Amharic) is located at the boundary between Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Regions and measures 64 Km long and 24 Km wide. Fed by the Weito River from the north, this salt lake used to cover an area of 2000 square Km in 1960 but it has shrunk to no more than a swamp over the years. The lake and its environs, which mostly consist of dry acacia woodland, are protected within the Chew Bahir Wildlife Reserve. The Reserve supports average numbers of Grevy’s zebra, greater and lesser Kudu, gerenuk and Grant’s gazelle, lion, spotted hyena and various small carnivores as well as a multitude of birdlife in the swamps near it including lesser flamingoes (which can number in the hundreds of thousands at times), different types of storks, waterfowl and waders while the acacia woodland surrounding the lake is home to the pink-breasted lark, scaly chatterer, greyheaded silver bill and Shelley’s starling among several others.