Some 300 years ago elephants occurred throughout Namibia except, perhaps, in the most extreme deserts along the coast. Even in these deserts they were able to penetrate the areas close to the sea along watercourses which supported a fringe of riparian vegetation. At that time, elephants were present from Capetown to the Cunene River. Brown (2000) notes that elephant went extinct in Namaqualand in the northern Cape before 1800. Elephants occurred in the Gondwana Canyon Park immediately north of the Orange River at the turn of the 19th century and were considered 'common'. Shortridge (1934) thought that elephants extended as far south as the Tropic of Capricorn within Namibia 150 years ago.

Alexander (1838, page 74) refers to the Damaras hunting elephants in the Swakop River. Andersson (1856, page 407) hunted elephants in Bushmanland. Baines (1864) travelled from Walvis Bay to Lake Ngami in Botswana and his maps refer to the Elephants River, a tributary of the Nossob, rising near modern-day Windhoek.

The extensive hunting for ivory around the turn of the 20th century resulted in massive declines in the Namibian elephant population. By 1900, elephants were regarded as scarce south of Cunene The last herd in what is now Etosha National Park was exterminated in 1881 (Fischer 1914). Hahn (1925) estimated no more than 50 elephants in Ovamboland, occurring mainly in the east. Nelson (1926) notes that there were no elephants in Namutoni (the eastern end of Etosha) but that they were distributed throughout eastern Ovamboland. "The scattered herds in the Kaokoveld visit Western Ovamboland in the wet months . . . but they are more liable to persecution. Among Ovambos, ivory is in great demand. Elephants in the northern areas are ever decreasing in numbers." Nelson estimated there were some 200 surviving elephants in the Outjo District in 1926.

By 1934, elephants were limited to the Kaokoveld and the Caprivi, with a few vagrants in Outjo District, Ovamboland and Okavango (Shortridge 1934). According to Shortridge, the elephants in the Kaokoveld were widely distributed from the Cunene in the north to the Ugab in the south (Damaraland) and numbered from 600-1,000.

Elephants were apparently absent from and rare in the areas surrounding Etosha for about 70 years (Bigalke 1958). Several bulls and small herds first colonised the Halali and Namutoni areas in the 1950s. Boreholes were developed in the 1960s in the dry west of Etosha to attract elephants into the park and solve conflicts in the neighbouring farming areas. Although successful, there were nevertheless over 200 elephants shot on farms bordering Etosha from 1970-1988 (Lindeque 1988). Colonisation of the park took place both from the east and west and the recorded movements indicate mixing of elephants. Elephants moved freely between Etosha and the eastern Kaokoveld with significant numbers leaving the park during the wet season.

The recovery of elephants in both the north-west of Namibia and the Caprivi suffered a setback during the period when the South African defence forces were active in these areas from 1960-1989. A subpopulation of some 80 elephants living west of the 150mm rainfall isohyet in the north of the Kaokoveld was reduced to 3 animals by 1981. These surviving animals travelled south and joined a larger group of 40-50 animals on the Hoanib river. Between 1979 and 1983, Viljoen (1987, 1988) found 123 carcases in the south of the Kaokoveld and northern Damaraland mainly along the Hoarusib and Hoanib Rivers. Loutit (pers. comm.) found 58 carcases in Damaraland between 1987 and 1992 and mentions large numbers illegally killed in the northern Kaokoveld near Ehombo and in western Ovamboland in the vicinity of Ombarundu. Owen-Smith (1968) estimated some 600-800 elephants in the north-west of Namibia: by the late 1980s this number had been reduced to about 250 animals. Similar illegal hunting took place in the Caprivi (Schlettwein et al 1991) but, because of the large Botswana population, the impact of the excesses was relatively minor.

Elephants continued to be killed after the SADF ceased operations. The last surviving elephants on the Cunene (13 animals which drank as far west as the river mouth) were killed by Angolans in 1990. Almost certainly elephants have been killed in Angola along the Kavango and Kwando Rivers immediately north of the Caprivi.

The pressure on elephants in the north-west of Namibia may have played a rôle in the rapid increase of the resident Etosha population. The estimate for Etosha in the dry season of 1967 was 500 animals; by 1983 this number increased to 2,800 (Lindeque 1988). Over 30 years the situation changed from a small number of vagrants present during wet season to a resident population numbering about 2,000 with a further 1,000 elephants present in the dry season only. Despite this substantial resident population, the Etosha elephant should still be seen as part of a larger population occurring through north-west Namibia.