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By Pat Graham
August 17, 2009
It’s 6:30 in the morning. We’re on a dusty road heading out of Halali, one of the three fenced areas where visitors must spend the night in Etosha National Park. We’re headed to a watering hole some 10 miles away.
We hope to find lions there.
Abruptly, the two vehicles ahead of us stop. We pull up and scan to see what’s caught their attention. There he is. Less than 6 feet from our side window is a full-grown male lion waiting to cross the road.
Our eyes meet, me being more stunned than him. He turns and trots past our vehicles and across the road, seemingly unaffected by our encounter.
While I missed a once in a lifetime photo opportunity, the image of that lion’s eyes is seared in my mind. Seeing him makes me appreciate why visitors here sleep in fenced areas. And, how thin the line is between people and nature here.
Life in the Place of Dry Water
Etosha National Park — home of black rhinos, elephants, lions and more — is one of the largest parks in the world covering more than 14,000 square miles. That’s more than double the size of Yellowstone National Park.
There are various interpretations of the name Etosha. My favorite is “place of dry water.” Reminds me of Arizona.
The name is fitting because Etosha surrounds a huge pan, a shallow lake bed that goes dry, except when the rains come during the hot summer months of January through March. As the pan dries up, small water holes become the sole source of water for oryx, black-faced impala, zebra, giraffe and other wildlife.
Lions understand the pulse of these daily migrations to water and lay in wait. At night we hear the unmistakable roar and huffs of lions on the move.
Etosha is the largest fenced park in the world. Some may wonder why a fence is necessary. To the south, the fence is part of a larger veterinary fence that crosses Namibia to prevent diseased cattle and buffalo from moving south. The other fences prevent elephant, lions and other animals from creating conflict with local farmers and villages outside the park.
A Conservation Success Story
It’s working. In 1954, only 26 elephants remained in the park. Today there are more than 2,500. The black rhino population reached a low point of 48, and now the park is home to the largest population in the world. I was asked not to share the number because it could encourage poaching, a major threat to rhinos.
Etosha is an important source of wildlife for translocations to other protected areas. During my visit, the Namibia Ministry of Environment and Tourism and Save the Rhino Trust are capturing black rhinos for relocation to communal lands in the Kunene region.
Important research also occurs here. Caitlin O’Connell, author of The Elephant’s Secret Sense, is here continuing her groundbreaking research on how elephants communicate. Elephants detect sound waves through their feet. The foot-stomping of one herd can be sensed by another nearly 20 miles away.
I see them lift one foot or tilt it forward so just the toes touch the ground. What message is being heard?
As grand as Etosha is, the goal is to make it part of one of the largest protected areas in the world, encompassing more than 15 million acres. That’s a protected area the size of West Virginia.
The Conservancy is supporting creation of Kunene People’s Park, which would link Etosha in the east with the Skeleton Coast to the west. The local communal conservancies, tribal authorities and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism will jointly manage the park, a very unique arrangement.
The park will create a vital corridor so that one day black rhino, elephants and other wildlife like lions can follow their historic migrations. And, create a sustainable economy for the people who live with them.
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Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Pat Graham/TNC (lion); Photo © Pat Graham/TNC (zebras); Photo © Pat Graham/TNC (giraffe).
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