Etosha National Park is a national park in northwestern Namibia and one of the largest national parks in Africa. It was proclaimed a game reserve in March 1907 in Ordinance 88 by the Governor of German South West Africa, Friedrich von Lindequist. It was designated as Wildschutzgebiet in 1958, and was awarded the status of national park in 1967, by an act of parliament of the Republic of South Africa. It spans an area of and was named after the large Etosha pan which is almost entirely within the park. With an area of , the Etosha pan covers 23% of the total area of the national park. The area is home to hundreds of species of mammals, birds and reptiles, including several threatened and endangered species such as the black rhinoceros. Sixty-one black rhinoceros were killed during poaching in Namibia during 2022, 46 of which were killed in Etosha.

The park is located in the Kunene region and shares boundaries with the regions of Oshana, Oshikoto and Otjozondjupa.

History

thumb|right|Charles John (Karl Johan) Andersson

Areas north of the Etosha pan were inhabited by Ovambo people, while various Otjiherero-speaking groups lived immediately outside the current park boundaries. The areas inside the park close to the Etosha pan were inhabited by Khoisan-speaking Hai//om people.

Explorers Charles John Andersson and Francis Galton are the first Europeans to record the existence of the Etosha pan on 29 May 1851, although it was already widely known by locals. The Hai||om were forcibly removed from the park in 1954, ending their hunter-gatherer lifestyle to become landless farm laborers. The Hai||om have had a recognized Traditional Authority since 2004 which helps facilitate communications between the community and the government. The government of Namibia acknowledges the park to be the home of Hai||om people and started to carry out plans to resettle displaced families on farms adjacent to the national park. Since 2007 the Government has acquired six farms directly south of the Gobaub depression in Etosha National Park. A number of families have settled on these farms under the leadership of Chief David Khamuxab, Paramount Chief of the Hai||om.

A wildfire burned through approximately one-third of the park in September 2025, requiring the Namibian government to deploy 500 troops. The fire is believed to have been started by charcoal production from bordering commercial farms and exacerbated by high winds and dry conditions.

German South-West Africa

The German Reich ordered troops to occupy Okaukuejo, Namutoni and Sesfontein in 1886 in order to kill migrating wildlife to stop the spread of rinderpest to cattle. A fort was built by the German cavalry in 1889 at the site of the Namutoni spring. On 28 January 1904, 500 men under Nehale Mpingana attacked Imperial Germany Schutztruppe at Fort Namutoni and completely destroyed it, driving out the colonial forces and taking over their horses and cattle. The salt pan is usually dry, but fills with water briefly in summer, when it attracts pelicans and flamingos in particular. In the dry season, winds blowing across the salt pan pick up saline dust and carry it across the country and out over the southern Atlantic. This salt enrichment provides minerals to the soil downwind of the pan on which some wildlife depends, though the salinity also creates challenges to farming activities. The Etosha Pan was one of several sites throughout southern Africa in the Southern African Regional Science Initiative (SAFARI 2000). Using satellites, aircraft, and ground-based data from sites such as Etosha, partners in this program collected a wide variety of data on aerosols, land cover, and other characteristics of the land and atmosphere to study and understand the interactions between people and the natural environment.

Dolomite Hills

The dolomite hills on the southern border of the park near the Andersson entrance gate are called Ondundozonananandana, meaning the place where young boy herding cattle went to never return, probably implying a high density of predators like leopards in the hills, giving the mountains its English name of Leopard Hills.

Vegetation types

In most places in the park, the pans are devoid of vegetation with the exception of halophytic Sporobolus salsus, a protein-rich grass that is eaten by grazers like blue wildebeest and springbok. The areas around the Etosha pan also have other halophytic vegetation including grasses like Sporobolus spicatus and Odyssea paucinervis, as well as shrubs like Suaeda articulata. Most of the park is savanna woodlands except for areas close to the pan. Mopane is the most common tree, estimated to make up around 80% of all trees in the park. The sandveld in the north-eastern corner of Etosha is dominated by acacia and Terminalia trees. Tamboti trees characterize the woodlands south of the sandveld. Dwarf shrub savanna occurs in areas close to the pan and is home to several small shrubs including a halophytic succulent Salsola etoshensis. Thorn bush savanna occurs 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 mainly around the Etosha pan where the soil is sandy. Depending on the soil and the effects of the pan, grasslands could be dominated by one of the Eragrostis, Sporobolus, Monelytrum, Odyssea or Enneapogon species.

Fauna

thumb|Elephants at the Jakkalswater Waterhole in Etosha Nationalpark.

The park has about 114 mammal species, 340 bird species, 110 reptile species, 16 amphibian species and 1 species of fish (up to 49 species of fish during floods). Etosha National Park is also the single-most important custodian of the black rhino in the world. In 2022, 46 white and black rhinos were poached in the park, which was more than half of the rhinos poached in the country for their horns.

History

By 1881, large game mammals like elephants, rhinoceroses and lions had been nearly exterminated in the region.

Mammals

Commonly seen mammals in the park, past and present, are listed in the table below:

{| class="wikitable sortable"

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! Mammal

! Status

! Additional information

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| African bush elephant

| common

| Etosha's elephants belong to the group of elephants in northwestern Namibia and southern Angola. They are the tallest elephants in Africa, but mineral deficiencies mean that they have very short tusks.

|-

| Southern white rhinoceros

| very rare

| Reintroduced recently after a long absence

|-

| South-western black rhinoceros

| rare

| Odendaal Commission's plan in 1963 severely reduced the habitat of the rhinoceros as most of their preferred habitat fell outside the park. Relocation programs have existed since then to increase the population of rhinos within the protected boundaries of the park.

|-

| Cape buffalo

| extinct

| The last known record of buffalo in the park is from an observation of a young bull killed by lions on the Andoni plains in the 1950s.

|-

| Angolan giraffe

| common

| A 2009 genetic study on this subspecies suggests that the northern Namib Desert and Etosha National Park populations form a separate subspecies.

|-

| Lion

| common

|

|-

| Leopard

| common

|

|-

| Cheetah

| uncommon

|

|-

| Serval

| rare

|

|-

| Caracal

| common

|

|-

| Southern African wildcat

| common

|

|-

| Black-footed cat

| very rare

|

|-

| Black-backed jackal

| very common

|

|-

| Bat-eared fox

| common

|

|-

| Cape fox

| common

|

|-

| Cape wild dog

| extinct

|

|-

| Brown hyena

| common

|

|-

| Spotted hyena

| common

|

|-

| Aardwolf

| common

|

|-

| Meerkat

| common

|

|-

| Banded mongoose

| common

|

|-

| Yellow mongoose

| common

|

|-

| Slender mongoose

| common

|

|-

| Dwarf mongoose

| uncommon

|

|-

| Common genet

| common

|

|-

| Common warthog

| common

|

|-

| Scrub hare

| common

|

|-

| Springhare

| common

|

|-

| African ground squirrel

| very common

|

|-

| Honey badger

| common

|

|-

| Aardvark

| common

|

|-

| Cape porcupine

| common

|

|-

| Ground pangolin (Manis temminckii)

| uncommon

|

|-

| Plains zebra

| very common

|

|-

| Mountain zebra

| locally common

| Seen only in western Etosha

|-

| Springbok

| very common

|

|-

| Black-faced impala

| common

|

|-

| Gemsbok

| common

|

|-

| Common duiker

| uncommon

|

|-

| Damara dik-dik

| common

|

|-

| Steenbok

| common

|

|-

| Red hartebeest

| common

|

|-

| Blue wildebeest

| common

|

|-

| Common eland

| uncommon

|

|-

| Greater kudu

| common

|

|}

Birds

This overview is only an indication of the diversity of birds in the park and is not a complete list.

{|

|- Valign = "top"

|

South African ostrich

Vultures

  • Lappet-faced vulture
  • White-backed vulture

Eagles

  • Martial eagle
  • Tawny eagle
  • Bateleur
  • Booted eagle
  • Circaetus eagles
  • Verreaux's eagle

Secretarybird

Other hawks

  • African harrier-hawk
  • Pale chanting goshawk
  • Shikra

Kites

  • Yellow-billed kite
  • Black-winged kite

Falcons

  • Lanner falcon
  • Greater kestrel
  • Lesser kestrel
  • Pygmy falcon
  • Red-necked falcon
  • Peregrine falcon
  • Red-footed falcon
  • Amur falcon

Owls

  • Verreaux's eagle-owl
  • Western barn owl
  • African scops owl

|

Storks

  • Abdim's stork
  • Marabou stork
  • White stork

Blue crane

Great white pelican

Flamingos

  • Lesser flamingo
  • Greater flamingo

Waterfowl

  • Red-billed teal
  • Egyptian goose
  • Knob-billed duck
  • Cape teal

Galliformes

  • Helmeted guineafowl
  • Red-billed spurfowl

Coursers and pratincoles

  • Temminck's courser
  • Double-banded courser
  • Three-banded courser
  • Black-winged pratincole

Waders

  • Spotted thick-knee
  • Three-banded plover
  • Crowned lapwing
  • Blacksmith lapwing

Rollers

  • Lilac-breasted roller
  • Purple roller
  • European roller

African hoopoe

|

Hornbills

  • Monteiro's hornbill
  • Southern yellow-billed hornbill
  • African grey hornbill

Crows

  • Pied crow
  • Cape crow

Sandgrouse

  • Namaqua sandgrouse
  • Double-banded sandgrouse

Pigeons and doves

  • Namaqua dove
  • Emerald-spotted wood dove
  • Ring-necked dove
  • Laughing dove

Other passerines

  • Red-billed quelea
  • Southern masked weaver
  • Lesser masked weaver
  • Sociable weaver
  • Cape sparrow
  • Cape starling
  • Herero chat

Bustards

  • Kori bustard
  • Northern black korhaan
  • Rüppell's korhaan
  • Red-crested korhaan

|

Shrikes and Bushshrikes

  • Red-backed shrike
  • Lesser grey shrike
  • Southern white-crowned shrike