What can you see in Etosha National Park?
Home to four of the Big Five (buffaloes were last seen here in the 1950s) and 110 other mammal species, Etosha is one of the best places in Africa to spot big game. Numerous small waterholes are backed by the vast Etosha Pan, a shimmering, almost featureless expanse of clay and salt covering some 5,000sq km and a quarter of the national park. Vegetation here is sparse and limited to short, salt-tolerant grasses, and water is in even shorter supply. Wildlife relies on the permanent small waterholes, which become a magnet for Etosha’s animals throughout the year.
There’s no need to head out on long safaris drives in search of a fleeting glimpse of an elephant here; simply pull up at a waterhole, sit tight and wait for the wildlife – including rhinos, giraffes, elephants, lions, cheetahs, zebras and gazelles – to come to you. You might even be lucky enough to see a leopard. During the dry season the concentration of waterhole wildlife is simply astounding.
Etosha’s most famous residents are its black rhinos. They may be critically endangered across Africa, but here in the harsh dry environment of the Etosha Pan, a healthy and hardy population adapted to desert life, is thriving. And it’s not hard to spot them either. A few of the waterholes adjacent to Etosha’s main camps are floodlit at night, offering a unique way to view the animals’ nocturnal activities as you sip a sundowner on a deck, a safe distance away. The waterhole at Okakuejo, for example, attracts black rhino almost every night, along with white rhino, lions and elephants.
Even impala, which on many safaris are quickly (and perhaps unfairly) dismissed as ‘yet another impala’, are worth a second look. Here, the endangered black-faced impala is flourishing and the park has played a major role in the recovery of one of Namibia’s endemic animals.
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