Etosha National Park

Etosha National Park IUCN Category II - National Park
Waterhole "Twee Palms" with makalani palms at the Fischer pan 2004
location	North-Central Namibia
surface	22,935 km²
WDPA ID	884
Geographical location	18 ° 51 ′  S , 15 ° 54 ′  E Coordinates: 18 ° 51 ′ 0 ″  S , 15 ° 54 ′ 0 ″  E
Setup date	March 22, 1907
administration	Ministry of Environment and Tourism

Map of the Etosha National Park

Satellite image of the Etosha National Park with a border fence, roads, water points, camps and gates

The Etosha National Park is a 22,935 square kilometer large National Park in northern Namibia and most important protected area of the country. The park is located on the northwestern edge of the Kalahari basin and covers almost the entire 4760 km² Etosha pan . From the southern border of the park it is 400 kilometers to the capital Windhoek and from the northern border 125 kilometers to the border with Angola . The Atlantic is almost 200 kilometers away from the western border.

The name "Etosha" comes from the Oshivambo and means something like "large white square".

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history

Parts of today's national park form the traditional settlement area of ​​the Haiǁom .

On March 22, 1907, the governor of German South West Africa , Friedrich von Lindequist , declared 99,526 km² of what is now Namibia to be a nature reserve ( Game Reserve 2 ), after the formerly rich game population was reduced to the brink of extinction through poaching and careless big game hunting Meat supplies to the population had been seriously endangered. The reserve extended over three areas. The first was roughly in the north of Grootfontein , the second area included today's park with the Etosha pan , most of the Kaokoland , and the Damaraland in the north and thus extended to the Skeleton Coast and the Kunene . The third area stretched over large parts of the Namib in the south.

There were no elephants in this area since 1880 and the herds of antelope , which used to number ten thousand animals, had largely disappeared. The protective measures were successful and led to a gradual regeneration of the wild populations. At the same time, however, the land requirements of the tribes living here and the immigrant white settlers increased.

The reserve was reduced in size as early as 1928. Between 1958 and 1967, further downsizing was carried out, which resulted in the withdrawal of wildlife sanctuaries one and two. In 1964 the area was declared a national park. In the course of the Odendaal Plan for the establishment of Homelands in the early 1970s, it was given its current borders and only had an area of ​​around 22,275 km² (295 km in the maximum east-west extent, 110 km in the maximum north-south extent) Expansion). It is still about the same size as the state of Hesse and the second largest nature reserve in Africa. Since the turn of the century, efforts have been made to expand the nature reserves in southern Africa again or even to connect them across borders. The Etosha National Park is also the subject of such considerations.

In 1973 the park was completely fenced in. The game population in the park increased sharply due to artificial boreholes. National Geographic wrote in March 1983: “Even as Etosha shrank, the game population within the remaining area increased significantly. How? Nothing easier than that. All you have to do is add water ” .

geography

The park today

Until the beginning of 2014, the park was divided into two parts for tourists. The eastern part, shaped by the Etosha pan, is freely accessible to tourists with cars. The western part, on the other hand, was only allowed to be visited in the company of registered guides until mid-2011, and since then by all overnight guests of Camp Dolomite . The western section at Galton Gate has been open to all visitors since the beginning of 2014.

Both parts are accessed by pads ( afrikaans for street) that lead past the numerous natural and artificial water points. In the eastern part, the pads run south and east of the Etosha pan. The western part is characterized by the long east-west connection, which only turns far west to south towards Galton Gate. Most of the roads are unpaved and the maximum speed is 60 km / h.

Entrance is from sunrise to sunset. Leaving the vehicles is only permitted in the fenced rest camps and in a few designated and fenced areas.

Before the fencing, the animals were able to move further north towards Kunene when it was dry. Since this possibility no longer exists today, artificial water points were created. This and the gradual expansion of the tourist infrastructure have made the Etosha National Park an important attraction for travelers to Namibia over the years.

In 2003 the park had over 200,000 visitors from all over the world.

The park in the future

The long-term plan is to develop the Etosha National Park beyond its original size of almost 100,000 km². In a first step, the proclamation is Kaokoveld as Kunene People's Park ( Kunene provided People's Park). This is to be merged with the Etosha National Park and the Skeleton Coast National Park in the long term .

See also : Namib Skeleton Coast National Park

Water points

A rhinoceros at the illuminated Okaukuejo waterhole

Female black-nosed impala at the Kalkheuwel Bore Hole waterhole

Greater Kudu at the Chudop -Wasserstelle

In particularly good rainy years, the Etosha pan is partly full in the peripheral areas (Fisher Pan more often and partly completely) and becomes home to thousands of water birds, including flamingos. There is no running water in the park and most of the year the animals rely on the natural and artificial watering holes. Towards the end of the drought, many of the natural water holes dried up and more game was gathering at the artificial water holes.

There are only five natural water holes in the western part of the park, compared to 29 in the eastern part. Therefore, only twelve artificial water points have been added in the eastern part, while there are 27 in the western part.

There are four types of water points:

• Artesian springs : here water is pumped to the surface under pressure. Most of these springs are in the vicinity of Namutoni, for example Little Namutoni, Koinachas, Goas and Chudop
• Groundwater sources in limestone basins, for example Okaukuejo, Aus (is also fed artificially), Ombika, Groß Okevi, Klein Okevi, Numeros and Ngobib (a collapsed cave)
• Contact or seepage sources : here two formations of different permeability meet, in the case of Etosha a layer of lime on a water-impermeable layer of clay. Such sources are, for example, Salvadora, Springbok and Okerfontein and Okondeka on the edge of the Etosha pan
• artificial boreholes such as Olifantsbad, Gemsbokvlakte

Vegetation zones

The vegetation zones in the Etosha National Park are formed due to different soil and water conditions. Depending on the author, up to 21 zones are distinguished. These can be simplified to eight zones, which are shown below. The main difference lies in the grouping of different shrub and tree zones.

• Lime salt pan

  The calcareous salt surface extends over the area of ​​the Etosha pan and is almost bare of vegetation due to the salty (3.25% by weight) and alkaline ( pH value > 10) soil. Only very salt-loving grasses, especially of the genus Sporobulus , grow here in places and are an important source of protein for antelopes and zebras during the drought.

  Only during the rainy season, when the salt pan is partially under water, does it provide a habitat for many birds, including the greater flamingo and the lesser flamingo . During this time you can even find frogs in the pan.

• Fields of grass

  The grass fields can be found on the entire southern and eastern edge in a strip of a few kilometers along the pan, often separated from the pan edge by the short shrub savannah. The Grootvlakte (large area) extends westward from the southeast of the Etosha Pan . Bounded by the Sprokieswoud in the south and the Adamax pan in the north with its foothills extending to the south-west.

  Two special grass fields are the Andoni grass field near the Andoni water point below the northeastern Nehale-Iye-Mpingana gate and the Ekuma grass field north of the island mountain Ondundozonananandana , which is located southwest of Okaukuejo on the park boundary. Ondundozonananandana is in the language of the Ovambo in about Where never return the little calves .

• Short shrub savannah

  The short shrub savannah can also be found on almost the entire southern and eastern edge in a strip a few kilometers narrow along the pan. The bushes, which grow at a good distance from each other, are rarely more than a meter tall and can still cope with salty soils.

• Thorn bush savannah

  The thorn bush savannah usually consists of different types of acacia, including hook thorn, glue thorn and Lüderitz acacia. It is located around the pan in a thin strip between the grass fields and the short shrub savannah on the one hand and the Mopane savannah or the mixed dry forest on the other. The largest thorn bush area is in the northwest with an acacia bush field that merges into mopane savannah or mopane tree fields to the east and southeast.

• Mopane savannah and mopane tree fields

  In the mopane savannah and the mopane tree field, the mopane dominates the landscape as a bush or tree and, with its protein-rich leaves, is an important source of food for herbivores, especially towards the end of winter. Large areas of trees extend south of the pan at a distance of a few kilometers from the edge of the pan to the park boundary and in a stiff almost along the entire southern boundary of the park. To the west of the Adamax pan there is a huge mopane shrub savannah that merges into a thorn bush savannah. The mopane savannah and mopane tree fields can be further subdivided depending on the subsoil (sand, lime, granite) or additionally dominating bushes and trees (ekumu trees, narawandu bushes, wingnuts and marula).

• Mixed dry forest

  Shepherd's tree, sandalwood acacia, rose thorn acacia and yellowwood tree can be found in the mixed dry forest. Since the mixed dry forest requires a lot of precipitation, it occurs only in the northeast on the Sandveld, north of the Fischer pan.

• Terminalia dry forest

  The Terminalia dry forest, also called tambuti or tamboti dry forest, is dominated by the extremely poisonous tamboti trees, which are up to 8 meters high. Mopane and Combrentum bushes grow in between. It extends in the east from Okerfontain via Kalkheuvel to the von-Lindequist-Tor.

• Dolomite Inselbergs

  The vegetation zone of the dolomite island mountains can only be found in a few places on the southern border and in the west of the park. Typical trees here are the moringa and the mountain dates that are up to ten meters tall. Acacia, balsam bushes and shepherd's tree are less common.

tourism

Along with Sossusvlei , the Etosha National Park is one of the most popular travel destinations in Namibia. Every year around 200,000 people visit the protected area.

Accesses

Entrance board with rules of conduct at "Andersson Gate".

The park has four entrances:

• in the east that of " Lindequist -Tor", which takes the asphalted main road C38 in the east to Namutoni ,
• in the north the " King Nehale Gate", which leads to the northeastern part,
• in the south the " Andersson's Gate", which leads to Okaukuejo in the central south via the asphalted C38 and
• in the west the “ Galton Gate”, the access to the western part of the park.

Accommodations

The water and observation tower in Okaukuejo

Fort Namutoni

The elevated observation post at the Halali waterhole

In the park itself there are six (as of April 2019) accommodations and some secured and unsecured toilets and picnic areas. Four of the accommodations have water holes that are illuminated at night. All are operated by the state-owned Namibia Wildlife Resorts . Overnight stays outside these accommodations are strictly prohibited.

• Okaukuejo : Okaukuejo is the name of a former German police and military station in the south of the national park. The place was originally called Okakwiya, "the woman who gives birth to a child every year". Today the park administration and the ecological institute are based there.
• Namutoni : Fort Namutoni is also a former police and military station in the eastern part of the national park, 123 kilometers from Okaukuejo. The name is derived from the Herero word Omutjamitinada and means "water flowing strongly from above".
• Halali : Halali is the name of the overnight camp opened in 1967 for general tourism. It is about 70 km away from the other two camps, Okaukuejo (south-west) and Namutoni (north-east).
• Onkoshi : Onkoshi was the first newly built accommodation in Etosha National Park since the mid-1960s. It is located north of Namutoni and is considered the most luxurious place to stay in the park.
• Dolomite : Dolomite is a rest camp built from 2010 to mid-2011 on the western part of the national park that was previously inaccessible to the general public. The access through the Galton Gate and the use of the western part was initially reserved for overnight guests of the camp.
• Olifantsrus : Olifantsrus opened in October 2014, making it the newest accommodation option around Etosha National Park. There are ten campsites and a waterhole that is illuminated at night.

research

Scientific animal research only began in Etosha when A. A. Pienaar, the first professional biologist, was hired in 1947. The suggestion of his successor P. Schoeman to kill 1000 zebras and 500 wildebeest because of the overloading of the grazing grounds was considered an innovation in game management . Research and wildlife management became direct objectives of the administration in 1954 with the appointment of Bernabé de Bat as the first head of the nature conservation administration. In 1974 the Research Institute for Environmental Issues was founded. It monitors changes in vegetation, climate and soil conditions. In the early 1980s attempts were made to reduce the hunting pressure caused by the lions with the help of hormone implants that lasted for at least three years.

Monitoring rabies and anthrax epidemics is a particularly difficult task for biologists . Because the animals can no longer migrate and are often close together at the watering holes, there is a risk of infection all year round. Between 1979 and 1982, rabies killed 100,000 kudus in southern Africa because they are particularly susceptible to this disease.

In the south-west of the park there was the 15,000 hectare sanctuary "Karoo" for the care of endangered wild animals until the mid-1990s. The enclave, founded in the 1970s, is dedicated to horse and eland , black-nosed impalas , mountain zebra and black rhinoceros , among other things .

fauna and Flora

See also : Wildlife population in Namibia

The Etosha National Park is home to a very large variety of large animal species. With the exception of crocodiles , hippos and buffaloes, you can find almost all large animal species from southern Africa. Since the fencing in in 1973, it has no longer been possible for the animals to leave the park - they are dependent on the food supply in the park.

So far, the following number of different animal species has been detected in Etosha:

• 114 species of mammals
• 340 species of birds
• 110 species of reptiles
• 16 amphibian species
• 1 species of fish

Mammals

Selection of the largest and most famous mammal species:

African elephant southern giraffe rhinos White rhinoceros Black rhinoceros Cats lion leopard cheetah Serval Black cat Desert lynx Kleinspot genet Civet cat Hyenas Brown hyena Aardwolf Spot hyena

dogs Cape fox Scoop dog Black-backed jackal Mongooses meerkat Fox mongoose Slim mongoose Southern pygmy mongoose Others Steppe pangolin Bush hare Honey badger Porcupine Warthog Jumping hare Ground squirrel Hyrax

Antelopes Eland Roan antelope Sable antelope South African hartebeest Zambezi great kudu Gemsbok (Oryx, Gemsbock ) Black heel antelope (anthropogenically introduced) and black-nosed impala Kalahari springbok Crown duiker Damara dikdik Ibex Blue wildebeest Zebras Hartmann's mountain zebra Plains zebra

Birds

This overview gives only an impression of the variety of birds in the park and is not an exhaustive list.

vulture Lavender White-backed vulture Woolly vulture Cape vulture Eagle Martial eagle Fish eagle Predatory eagle Booted eagle Black-breasted short-toed eagle Juggler Hawks and sparrowhawks Cave consecration Dwarf cattle Ovambosperber Singing hawk Gabar goshawk White-rumped hawk Kites Black and red kite Sliding couple

Hawks Lanner falcon Red-necked hawk Red hawk Steppe falcon Shikra Kestrel Pygmy falcon heron Goliath Heron Gray heron Purple heron Black-necked heron Great Egret Storks Abdim stork Mohrenklaffschnabel Gluttonous Marabou Saddle stork Black stork White stork ostrich secretary

Crowned crane Paradise crane Great White Pelican Lesser Flamingo Greater Flamingo Guinea fowl Bustards Gackling bustard Ludwig bustard Giant bustard Redhead bustard Bustard Southern ground hornbill Tokos Yellow Beak Toko Gray token Monteiro-Toko Red Schnabeltoko Red-bellied shrike Racks European roller Fork rack Garter belt

hoopoe Golden bow parrot Rose parrot Ruff Parrot Gray fishermen Gray head reads Senegaliest Strip reading Maskenbülbül Blue-cheeked pint European bee-eater Dwarf bee-eater Weber Bloodbeak weaver Buffalo weaver Cabanis weavers Mahali weavers Mask weaver Oryx weaver Red-brown weaver Scarlet weaver Siedelweber Ravens Tortoiseshell

Wildlife care and protection

Elephants at the water hole

Numerous national and international projects for the protection of the animal world take place in the national park.

The protection of the black rhinos ( Diceros bicornis bicornis ) is a great success . Their number rose from around 48 animals in 1970 to 340 in 1990. That was 10 percent of the world's population at the time. Sometimes they are caught in endangered places on the edge of the park and brought further into the center of the park to protect them from poachers. This allowed the number of poached rhinos to be reduced to four in 1990 compared to 23 in the previous year. Today, due to the success of the protection of the black rhinoceros, consideration is being given to whether controlled hunting in Namibia should be allowed for the taking of foreign currency.

Since December 1988 there has been a special unit against professional poaching (Anti-Poaching Unit), some of which are on the move for weeks. This is not aimed at casual poachers who climb over the fence to hunt a springbok or a warthog for their own use, but rather at criminal gangs who kill dozens of animals with automatic weapons or kill elephants and rhinos because of their tusks or horns.

flora

Moringa trees in the Sprokieswoud

A botanical specialty is the Sprokieswoud (magic forest) between Okaukuejo and the Charl-Marais dam. Moringa trees (afrikaans sprokiesboom ), which otherwise only grow on rocky ground , are located on an area of ​​about one square kilometer, partially fenced in to protect them from elephants .

trees and shrubs

Acacias Hook thorn ( Acacia mellifera ) Camel thorn ( Acacia erioloba ) Glue thorn ( Acacia nebrownii ) Lüderitz acacia ( Acacia luederitzii ) Rosendorn ( Acacia ataxacantha ) Sandveldakacia ( Acacia fleckii )

Balsam bushes ( Commiphorae ) Mountain date ( Berchima discolor ) Brackish bush ( Salsola articulata ) Wild fig Wing nuts ( Combretum ) Makalani palm ( Hyphaene ventricosa ) Marula ( Sclerocaryga birrea )

Mopane ( Colospemum mopane ) Moringa ( Moringa ovalifolia ) Star chestnut ( Sterculia quinqueloba ) Tamboti ( Spirostachys africana ) Stinkbusch , Embroidery Shepherd's Tree or Shepherd's Tree ( Boscia foetida ) Wait-a-bit ( Ziziphus mucronata )

annotation

1. ↑ Note: This article contains characters from the alphabet of the Khoisan languages spoken in southern Africa . The display contains characters of the click letters ǀ , ǁ , ǂ and ǃ . For more information on the pronunciation of long or nasal vowels or certain clicks , see e.g. B. under Khoekhoegowab .

Web links

Commons : Etosha National Park  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Official brochures of the national park ( Memento of August 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English)

literature

• Rieth van Schalkwyk: Etosha - Celebrating a hundred years of conservation. Venture Publications, Windhoek 2007, ISBN 978-99916-828-3-9 .
• Claire and Thomas Küpper: Namibia Nature Reserves Travel Guide . Ivanowski's Reisebuchverlag, Dormagen 2000, ISBN 3-923975-60-0 .
• Christine Marais, Anna Marais: Etosha experience . Gamsberg-Macmillan, Windhoek 1995, ISBN 978-0-86848-936-0 .
• Daryl and Sharna Balfour: Etosha - Natural Paradise in Africa . Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-440-06499-9 .
• 100 Years of Etosha , Documentation, 2007, available online

further reading

• MW book: Cenozoic climate and environmental change in Etoscha / Northern Namibia - Investigations into the climate sensitivity and geomorphodynamics of a semi-arid landscape in southern Africa . Habilitation . Regensburg 1993.
• MW Buch, M. Lindeque, H. Beugler-Bell, W. du Plessis, Ch. Trippner: Environmental Change in the Etosha National Park, Northern Namibia. The Research-Cooperation-Project between the Etosha Ecological Institute, Okaukuejo / Republic of Namibia and the Department of Geography at the University of Regensburg / FR of Germany. Aims, Activities and First Results. Report submitted to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ). Vol. I – V, self-published, Regensburg / Okaukuejo 1993/1994.

Movies

• Paul van Schalkwyk, Josef Nyberg: Etosha. Venture Publications, Windhoek 2008, ISBN 978-99916-828-6-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Etosha National Park. Ministry of Environment and Tourism. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
2. ^ Geological Attraction Etosha. Ministry of Mines and Energy, Namibia, 2007 ( memento of March 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on June 28, 2013
3. ↑ etoshanationalpark.org
4. ↑ Namibia's tourism statistics for 2003 ( Memento from December 9, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Etosha and Kunene People's Park ( Memento from September 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
6. ^ National Parks - Namibia Wildlife Resorts. Retrieved January 14, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Etosha Fact Sheet 2 ( Memento from December 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), Ministry of Environment and Tourism (PDF; 272 kB) accessed on January 17, 2011.