In earlier times, wild dogs also numbered among Etosha's predators, but they were hunted and killed indiscriminately by stock farmers until their population crashed to a level beyond recovery. While attempts have been made to re-introduce wild dogs from other areas, or with individuals raised in captivity, there are specific problems attached to re-locating animals so profoundly social in their behavior. To date, all the efforts of re-introduction have been unsuccessful, with dogs either dying from disease or falling prey to lions.

Poaching is yet another threat, especially in the northern areas of the park, with black rhinoceros and elephant as the main targets. De-horning rhinoceros has successfully protected poaching in some areas of Africa, but introduces another problem. By depriving a rhinoceros of its natural weaponry, it becomes defenseless to lion attacks. Recent efforts have been successful in introducing wild rhinoceros to the park.

Efforts to Preserve the Land and Wildlife
Serious interest in research came in 1947 when the first professional biologist, A.A. Piennar, was appointed to Etosha. He was succeeded in 1951 by P. Schoeman, who showed initiative in proposing the first steps toward game management, recommending that 1,000 zebras and 500 wildebeest be culled to relieve pressure on grazing lands. In 1954, B. de la Bat was appointed as Etosha¹s first game warden, and a nature conservation unit was established in 1974, with H. Berry as chief biologist. Other advances and changes were underway at the same time, notably tourism. In 1952, the police outpost for control of ninderpest or Okaukuejo was converted into a tourist restcamp. Namutoni followed in 1958 with the reconstruction of the fort, and a third restcamp, at Halali, opened in 1967 after Etosha gained National Park status.

But these years of advance and expansion also saw a massive reduction in size of the park. By 1973, 75 percent of Etosha¹s original expanse had been returned to tribal ownership, and the park¹s boundaries had been formalized by means of a three meter high game fence encircling the entire reserve. This ring of steel and wire plays an important role in the ecology of Etosha, artificially containing the populations of wild animals, preventing random spreading due to fluctuations in numbers, and severing important migratory routes. The fenced-in populations meant that Etosha faced ever-increasing grazing pressures.