The huge kori bustard, weighing over 30 pounds, lives mostly on the ground as well, seldom summoning the strength to propel its enormous mass into flight. Yellow-billed hornbills are common and over 300 more birds have been spotted. In years of good rain, the salt pan becomes a temporary lagoon. Flamingos and white pelicans wing in to breed. The Pan itself is strictly off-limits, but a network of gravel roads runs along its edge.
Animals congregate at the waterholes left over from the rainy season.
Visitors are torn between sitting quietly for hours watching the game come and go at a single spot, or moving from one to another in hopes of more species. The ecology varies greatly across the width of the forest, and a traveler must cover the full terrain from salt pan to woodland to attempt all the major species. Around the turn of the century, Etosha witnessed a scene straight out of Beau Gest. Seven German soldiers manned the ramparts of a white-washed fortress deep in the bush. Five hundred Owambo tribesman attacked.