Not only elephants, giraffes, rhinos and lions can breathe a sigh of relief, but also holidaymakers in Namibia. Nature appears to be coping with the wildfire in Etosha National Park at the end of September much better than feared. Tour guides report an unusually large amount of wildlife at the waterholes.
The fires were already under control by the middle of last week. The area most affected was the huge part of Etosha National Park west of Okaukuejo, which is rarely visited by tourists.
According to tour guides, burnt areas between Okaukuejo and Halali show many islands of undamaged grass. With a few exceptions, shrubs and trees survived the fire well. The wildlife apparently finds enough to eat.
According to tour guides, there are also grasslands in the Etosha Pan. There is also plenty of wildlife to be seen there, which comes to drink at the waterholes on the edge of the pan. Here and there, fresh green shoots are even sprouting. The ground may still be damp after the exceptionally good rainfall in March and April.
October often sees the first rain after the dry season. If it rains soon, the entire park will be transformed into a green paradise. The plant ash then acts as fertiliser.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Environment announced that more than 850,000 hectares (8,500 km²) were affected by the fire. With a total area of around 22,270 km² (see article on Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etosha_National_Park]), this corresponds to around 38 per cent. A final report on the cause of the fire and the damage to nature is not yet available.
Etosha National Park is Namibia's main tourist attraction alongside Sossusvlei in the Namib Desert. There, visitors can see wild animals such as elephants, lions and rhinos in their natural habitat.
However, the claim that also dolphins now live in Etosha turned out to be fake news. While writing, autocorrect had unnoticedly changed 'duiker', a small antelope species, to the marine mammal. AI-generated photos of dolphins with zebra patterns in waters with Etosha in the background then circulated on social media.
Sven-Eric Stender