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NAME Etosha National Park

IUCN MANAGEMENT CATEGORY II (National Park)

BIOGEOGRAPHICAL PROVINCE 03.15.07 (Namib)

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION About 400km north of Windhoek and 120km south of the Angolan border. 18°30'-19°28'S, 14°20'-17`10'E

DATE AND HISTORY OF ESTABLISHMENT Originally established as a game reserve in 1907, it was officially designated a national park in 1958 under Section 37 of the Nature Conservation Ordinance 31 of 1967 (Art. 37, Para. 1, 2 and 3).

AREA 2,270,000ha. In 1907, Etosha Game Reserve covered 9,324,000ha which was reduced during 1947-53 to 2,314,000ha in area. In 1958, on the recommendation of the Commission of Enquiry into Southwest Africa's Affairs (Odenaal Commission), the size of the park was increased to include sections of the Skeleton Coast to an area of 9,952,600ha, but by 1970 the park borders were deproclaimed to provide land for Herero speaking tribes, to its present size of 2,227,000ha.

LAND TENURE Government, under jurisdiction of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Directorate of Environmental Affairs.

ALTITUDE 1,000-1,500m (mean 1,200m)

PHYSICAL FEATURES The park comprises an area of inland drainage on the great African plateau with Atlantic drainage in the west, and a system of interlaced channels (omurambas) with smaller water-holding pans draining towards the Etosha Pan in the east. The main pan is about 480,000ha and up to 129km long and 72km wide. Owambo tribesmen named the pan 'Etosha' meaning 'the big white place' because of the pan's mirage. During most of the year, the pan appears barren and desolate, but during the wet season water drains from the north to fill the pan from Ovamboland and southern Angola. In exceptional years, the pan becomes a very shallow lake averaging a few centimetres in depth. Geologically, the area is composed of calcareous sand, gravel, and limestone with dolomite outcrops in the west. Soils are shallow and alkaline.

CLIMATE The temperature ranges from below freezing at night in winter to a summer maximum of 45°C. Annual rainfall averages 300mm in the west and 500mm in the east, falling mainly from January to March, and September to December. There are generally three seasons in Etosha's year, four cold and dry months, four hot and dry months, and four hot and wet months. Weather data, particularly rainfall is monitored at a number of sites throughout the park.

VEGETATION Arid savanna vegetation, tending towards tree savanna, occurs in the east, and shrub and thorn-shrub in the west. Species include acacias Acacia tortilis, A. reficiens and A. nebrownii, mopane Colophospermum mopane, and Combretum. All these species can vary in form from shrub to tree and occur throughout the park. Dominant grass species areAnthephora, Enneapogon, Aristida, Stipagrostis, Eragrostis and Sporobolus.

FAUNA Most of the larger mammals of the southern savanna plains of Africa occur in the park, 114 species are found including leopard Panthera pardus (T), cheetah Acinonyx jubatus (V), numerous elephant Loxodonta africana (T), distinctive races of Burchell's zebra Equus burchelli antiquorum and Hartmann's mountain zebra Equus zebra hartmannae (V), black rhinoceros Diceros bicornis (E), giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis, kudu Tragelaphus strepsiceros, eland Taurotragus oryx, roan antelope Hippotragus equinus, gemsbok Oryx gazella, springbok Antidorcas marsupialis, hartebeest Alcelaphus buselaphus, wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus, steenbok Raphicerus campestris, black-faced impala Aepyceros melampus petersi (E) (limited to this region), and Damara dik-dik Madoqua kirki.

The park supports about 340 bird species and the pan is a wetland of international importance. Both greater Phoenicopterus ruber and lesser P. minor flamingos breed on the pan in large numbers during years of above average rainfall (one of only two breeding sites in southern Africa), as do white pelicans Pelecanus onocrotalus and chestnut-banded plovers Charadrius pallidus.

Etosha has four hornbill species: yellow billed hornbill Tockus flavirostris, Monteiro's hornbill T. monteiri, grey hornbill T. nasutus, and red-billed hornbill T. erythrorhynchus. Also commonly recorded are blue crane Anthropoides paradisea, kori bustard Ardeotis kori, lappet-faced vulture Torgos tracheliotus, violet woodhoopoe Phoeniculus damarensis, Carp's black tit Parus carpi, bare-cheeked babbler Turdoides gymnogenys and black-faced babbler T. melanops. There are 110 reptiles species including African python Python sebae, dwarf python P. anchietas, southern bird snake, Kalahari star tortoise Psammabates oculipes, leopard tortoise Leochelone pardalis, savanna monitor Varanus exanthematicus and Etosha agama Agama etoshae, a number of scorpion species, 16 amphibian and one freshwater fish species (Olivier and Olivier, 1993).

LOCAL HUMAN POPULATION The earliest known inhabitants of the area were small bands of Heikum San. The Pan played an important role in the lifestyle and religious practices of later inhabitants, the Owambo people. Not only was the salt an important bartering commodity, but the excursion to the pan was associated with rainmaking and agricultural production. Salt collection formed part of a religious rituals of the Ndonga, Kwambi and Ngandjera kingdoms, but the practice has ceased since the mid-1930s (Olivier and Olivier, 1993).

VISITORS AND VISITOR FACILITIES There are three restcamps (Okaukeujo, Halali, Namutoni) with airstrips, each with full facilities (accommodation, swimming pools, shop, restaurant, petrol). A fourth rest camp in the extreme west has been proposed for a number of years but no planning progress has been made. Eight hundred kilometres of gravel tourist roads link the camps to over 30 waterholes. There are floodlit waterholes at Okaukuejo, Halali with one under construction at Namutoni. Rudimentary rest-stops in the park surrounded by game-proof fences are provided for visitors. There are information centres for visitors at Okaukeujo and Namutoni. Reservations can be made in Windhoek at the Ministry office.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND FACILITIES The park has four permanent research staff (three animal/plant ecologists, one veterinary surgeon) and a number of visiting researchscientists. The Etosha Ecological Institute is located at Okaukeujo. Laboratory and accommodation facilities were enlarged and improved in 1974 at a cost of US$ 375,000.

CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT The solution of park management problems is often the main activity, and priorities are fixed by the director of the park in consultation with the head of research. Etosha is divided into 24 management units based on common edaphic, topographic and biotic factors. The role of fire as an ecological factor is accepted and applied in a simulation of a natural fire regime. The management units serve as burning blocks with gravel roads dividing them acting as fire breaks. Thriving lion populations are competing with cheetah causing a decline in the cheetah population. An experiment (the first of its kind in the world) was successfully completed in 1986, where 10 lionesses were administered with hormonal contraceptive implants. This method of population control is considered preferable to culling lions in a national park, as no genetic material is destroyed and procedure is reversible.

About 80% of the park is closed to tourism. A predator-free zone is maintained at Otjovasandu in the west for threatened species such as black rhinoceros, black-faced impala, roan antelope, and tssesebe. A master plan for the park has been implemented since 1986, wherein the objectives stated for nature conservation by the World Conservation Strategy form the framework.

MANAGEMENT CONSTRAINTS Etosha is surrounded by double electric boundary fences, primarily designed to keep poachers and domestic animals out of the park, have resulted in serious disturbance of migratory patterns. In particular, wildebeest migration was blocked by the northern fence which contributed to a decrease in 25 years from 25,000 to 2,300. Additional, many deep limepits were dug to provide gravel for tourist roads. These pits filled with water after the rains and many became infected with the anthrax bacteria Bacillus anthracis, a disease fatal to herbivores (mainly elephant, wildebeest and zebra), that drink the water. The sick and dead animals have contributed to the increase in lions and other carnivores, whose environment was further improved by the construction of artificial watering points. A second disease Feline Immune Deficiency Virus (FIV), similar in effects to the human HIV, is monitored across Namibia. The control of veld fires in the past altered the environment from savanna towards woodland and elephant, subsequently increased from under 100 in 1955 to 1,500 at present. The area has been particularly affected by drought since 1979-1980, 1992-95 with rainfall about 30-75% less than average, leading to a reduction in vegetation, especially grass cover. Mountain zebra have moved east from Damaraland and Kaokoland into Etosha, putting pressure on water points and grazing. Many have been killed by lions because their hooves, no longer subject to the wear of normal mountain habitat, grow abnormally, reducing agility. Elephants in west Etosha doubled from 872 in 1982 to 1819 in 1983 from immigration from drought areas. Kudu have been dramatically reduced by rabies in east Etosha. One thousand, two hundred and sixteen Hartman's and Burchell's zebra, springbok, gemsbok have been culled in west Etosha. There are regular and intensive anti-poaching patrols throughout the park. The Ministry's national game capture unit also translocates animals addressing over populated units and water shortages. For example, animals are transported to the quarantine camp at Waterberg Plateau Park for auction to approved authorities in Namibia and southern Africa. Some culling is practised.

STAFF Some 444 units were employed in 1989. A team of nature conservators is basedat each rest came and in Otjovasandu in the west.

BUDGET US$ 2,600,000 annually

LOCAL ADDRESSES Directorate of Environmental Affairs, Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Private Bag 13306, Windhoek 9000.

REFERENCES Berry, H.H. 1982. The Wildebeest Problem in Etosha: a synthesis. Madoqua 13(2): 151-158.

Jackson, P. 1984. Wildlife and the Great African Drought. IUCN Bulletin Vol 15 No. 7-9: 73-74.

Newmann, K. 1983. Birds of Southern Africa. MacMillan South African Publishers, 461pp.

Olivier, W. and Olivier, S., 1993. A Guide to Namibian Game Parks, Longman Publishers, Namibia. 248pp.

Readers Digest 1983. Game Parks and Nature Reserves of Southern Africa. Cape Town, South Africa. 443pp.

Skinner, J.D. and Smithers, R.H.N. 1990. The Mammals of Southern Africa Subregion, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, RSA.

Stander, P. 1991. Demography of lions in the Etosha National Park, Namibia. Madoqua. 18(1):1-9.

Stander, P. 1992. Foraging dynamics of lions in a semi-arid environment, Can. J. Zool. 70:9-21.

DATE 1983, 1989, revised June 1995

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