Etosha National Park is a national park in northwestern Namibia and one of the largest national parks in Africa. It became a game reserve in March 1907 under Ordinance 88, led by Governor Friedrich von Lindequist of German South West Africa. In 1958, it was designated as a protected area called Wildschutzgebiet, and in 1967, it received the status of a national park through a law passed by the Republic of South Africa. The park covers an area of 22,270 square kilometers (8,600 square miles) and is named after the large Etosha pan, which is mostly inside the park. The Etosha pan covers 4,760 square kilometers (1,840 square miles), or 23% of the park’s total area. The region is home to hundreds of mammal, bird, and reptile species, including endangered animals like the black rhinoceros. In 2022, 61 black rhinoceros were killed by poachers in Namibia, with 46 of those deaths occurring in Etosha. The park is located in the Kunene region and borders the Oshana, Oshikoto, and Otjozondjupa regions.
History
Areas north of the Etosha Pan were home to the Ovambo people, while Otjiherero-speaking groups lived just outside the park’s current boundaries. Inside the park near the Etosha Pan, the Khoisan-speaking Hai//om people lived.
Explorers Charles John Andersson and Francis Galton were the first Europeans to record the Etosha Pan on May 29, 1851. Local people already knew about the pan, but the explorers learned of it while traveling with Ovambo traders who carried copper ore. They passed through Omutjamatunda (now called Namutoni) and discovered the pan when they traveled north. The name "Etosha" comes from the Oshindonga word meaning "Great White Place," referring to the pan. The Hai//om called the pan "Khubus," meaning "totally bare, white place with lots of dust." The pan is also known as "Chums," a name for the noise made by walking on its clay surface.
At that time, the Hai//om people recognized the authority of the Ovambo chief at Ondonga, but the Hereros did not. In 1954, the Hai//om were forced to leave the park, ending their hunter-gatherer lifestyle and becoming landless farm laborers. Since 2004, the Hai//om have had a recognized Traditional Authority to help communicate with the government. The government of Namibia acknowledges the park as the home of the Hai//om and has planned to resettle displaced families on farms near the park. Since 2007, the government has acquired six farms south of the Gobaub depression in Etosha National Park. Families have settled there under the leadership of Chief David Khamuxab, the Paramount Chief of the Hai//om.
A wildfire burned through about one-third of the park in September 2025, requiring the Namibian government to send 500 troops to control it. The fire was likely caused by charcoal production on nearby farms and worsened by strong winds and dry weather.
In 1885, entrepreneur William Worthington Jordan bought a large area of land from the Ovambo chief Kambonde. The land stretched nearly 170 kilometers (110 miles) from Okaukuejo in the west to Fischer’s Pan in the east. Jordan paid £300 in 25 firearms, one salted horse, and a cask of brandy. Dorstland Trekkers traveled through the park between 1876 and 1879 on their way to Angola. They returned in 1885 and settled on free farms given to them by Jordan. They named the area "Upingtonia" after the Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. The settlement was abandoned in 1886 after conflicts with the Hai//om and defeat by Chief Nehale Mpingana.
In 1886, the German Reich sent troops to occupy Okaukuejo, Namutoni, and Sesfontein to kill wildlife and stop the spread of rinderpest to cattle. A fort was built by German soldiers in 1889 at the Namutoni spring. On January 28, 1904, 500 men led by Chief Nehale Mpingana attacked the German fort at Namutoni, destroyed it, and drove out the colonial forces, taking their horses and cattle. The fort was rebuilt, and troops were stationed there again in 1907 when the area became a game reserve. Lieutenant Adolf Fischer of Fort Namutoni became the first "game warden."
Since its creation in 1907, Etosha National Park has had many boundary changes. Major changes occurred in 1958 and 1970 due to Ordinance 18 and Ordinance 21.
When the Etosha area was declared "Game Reserve 2" in 1907, the park stretched from the mouths of the Kunene River and Hoarusib River on the Skeleton Coast to Namutoni in the east. The original area was estimated at 99,526 square kilometers (38,427 square miles), but this was later corrected to about 80,000 square kilometers (31,000 square miles). Ordinance 18 in 1958 changed the western boundary to exclude the area between the Kunene and Hoarusib rivers and include the area between the Hoanib and Ugab rivers, reducing the park’s size to 55,000 square kilometers (21,000 square miles). The Odendaal Commission’s decision in 1963 led to the current park boundary being set in 1970.
The Etosha Ecological Institute was officially opened on April 1, 1974, by Adolf Brinkmann of the South-West African Administration. The institute conducts research on park management, including studies on vegetation, wildlife populations, and diseases like anthrax. It collaborates with researchers from universities in Namibia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Africa, Australia, Norway, and Israel.
Geography
The salt pans are the most visible geological features in the national park. The main low area covers about 5,000 square kilometers (1,900 square miles) and is approximately 130 kilometers (81 miles) long. In some places, it is as wide as 50 kilometers (31 miles). The very salty conditions of the pan limit the types of plants and animals that can live there permanently. However, special kinds of tiny organisms, called extremophiles, can survive in these conditions. The salt pan is usually dry, but it fills with water briefly during the summer, which attracts birds like pelicans and flamingos. During the dry season, winds carry salty dust from the pan across the country and over the southern Atlantic Ocean. This dust adds minerals to the soil in areas downwind of the pan, which some wildlife relies on. However, the salt also makes farming difficult in these regions. The Etosha Pan was one of several locations studied in southern Africa as part of the Southern African Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000). Scientists used satellites, planes, and ground measurements from places like Etosha to collect information about tiny air particles, land cover, and other features of the land and atmosphere. This helped researchers understand how people and nature interact.
The dolomite hills near the southern border of the park, close to the Andersson entrance gate, are called Ondundozonananandana. This name means "the place where young boys herding cattle went to never return," which likely suggests that the hills had many predators, such as leopards. Because of this, the hills are known in English as the Leopard Hills. The Halali area also has dolomite hills inside the park, including one hill within the camp and another nearby called Twee Koppies. Western Etosha is mostly covered by dolomite hills and is the only part of the park where mountain zebras live.
The Etosha National Park has a savanna desert climate. The average temperature is about 24°C (75°F). In winter, nighttime temperatures usually drop to around 10°C (50°F), while in summer, temperatures often reach about 40°C (104°F). Because it is a desert, there is a large difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures. Rain rarely falls during the winter months.
Vegetation types
In most parts of the park, the pans have little to no plant life, except for a salt-tolerant grass called Sporobolus salsus. This grass is rich in protein and is eaten by animals such as blue wildebeest and springbok. Around the Etosha pan, other salt-tolerant plants grow, including grasses like Sporobolus spicatus and Odyssea paucinervis, as well as shrubs like Suaeda articulata. Most of the park is covered in savanna woodlands, except for areas near the pan. Mopane trees are the most common type of tree in the park, making up about 80% of all trees. In the north-eastern part of the park, the sandveld is mainly covered by acacia and Terminalia trees. South of the sandveld, woodlands are dominated by tamboti trees. Near the pan, dwarf shrub savanna grows, where small shrubs, including a salt-tolerant succulent called Salsola etoshensis, are found. Thorn bush savanna grows close to the pan on limestone and alkaline soils, and is dominated by acacia species such as Acacia nebrownii, Acacia luederitzii, Senegalia mellifera, Acacia hebeclada, and Vachellia tortilis. Grasslands in the park are mostly found around the Etosha pan, where the soil is sandy. Depending on the soil type and the influence of the pan, grasslands may be dominated by one of several grass species, including Eragrostis, Sporobolus, Monelytrum, Odyssea, or Enneapogon.
Fauna
The park is home to about 114 types of mammals, 340 types of birds, 110 types of reptiles, 16 types of amphibians, and 1 type of fish (up to 49 types during floods). Etosha National Park is the most important protector of the black rhino in the world. In 2022, 46 white and black rhinos were killed for their horns in the park, which was more than half of all rhino poaching in the country that year.
By 1881, large animals such as elephants, rhinoceroses, and lions were almost completely wiped out in the area. The creation of the game reserve helped some animals return, but other species, like buffalo and wild dogs, have not been seen since the middle of the 20th century. A person from Otjiwarongo became a game warden in 1951 and said the grasslands were overused. A bone meal plant was built near Rietfontein, and zebras and wildebeests were killed in large numbers starting in 1952. Official records show 293 zebras and 122 wildebeests were handled at the plant, but conservationists said thousands were killed and forced the plant to close that year. A drought beginning in 1980 led to the largest capture and culling event in the park’s history. 2,235 mountain zebras and 450 plains zebras were captured, killed, or sold. 525 elephants were killed and processed at a temporary slaughterhouse near Olifantsrus.
Since 2005, the protected area has been part of a Lion Conservation Unit.
Common mammals seen in the park, both in the past and today, are listed in the table below:
This list shows some of the birds found in the park, but it is not complete.