[1] 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.

Areas north of the Etosha pan were inhabited by Ovambo people, while various Otjiherero-speaking groups lived immediately outside the current park boundaries.

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.

Since 2007 the Government has acquired six farms directly south of the Gobaub depression in Etosha National Park.

In 1885, entrepreneur William Worthington Jordan bought a huge tract of land from Ovambo chief Kambonde.

On 28 January 1904, 500 men under Nehale Mpingana attacked Imperial Germany's Schutztruppe at Fort Namutoni and completely destroyed it, driving out the colonial forces and taking over their horses and cattle.

The Etosha Ecological Institute was formally opened on 1 April 1974 by Adolf Brinkmann of the South-West African Administration.

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.

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.

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.

[2] The proclamation of the game reserve helped some of the animals recover, but some species like buffalo and wild dogs have been extinct since the middle of the 20th century.

The drought that began in the year 1980 resulted in the largest capture and culling operation in the history of the park.

South African ostrich Vultures Eagles Secretarybird Other hawks Kites Falcons Owls Storks Blue crane Great white pelican Flamingos Waterfowl Galliformes Coursers and pratincoles Waders Rollers African hoopoe Hornbills Crows Sandgrouse Pigeons and doves Other passerines Bustards Shrikes and Bushshrikes Waxbills Bulbuls Larks Herons