History of Mount Etjo and Okonjati Wildlife Sanctuary

Give back to nature, more than you take out. This is the philosophy and goal, of Jan Oelofse, a world-renowned conservationist, who founded the Okonyati Game Sanctuary during 1975. Jan grew up in Namibia and left for East Africa in his early twenties to begin his career working as Game Catcher for Tanganyika Game Limited, owned by the legendary Mr Willie de Beer. He gained tremendous experience of wildlife, while capturing and preparing wild animals for long journeys to European Zoos. The game was caught, taken care of for months and taken by ship from Taganyika’s seaport to their European destinations. Jan was responsible for the care and well-being of the animals on the entire journey. During 1960, while working for Paramount Pictures, he captured and trained all the animals for the film "Hatari", starring John Wayne, Elsa Martinelli, Hardy Krüger and many more famous actors. After a years work of training the animals and filming in Tanganyika, Jan left aboard a DC 6 with approximately forty of his trained animals, via West Africa, South America and the West Indies to Hollywood, where the final filming was done. Even though Jan had many offers for employment in the United States, his passion for wildlife and Africa soon brought him back, where during 1964, he was employed by the Natal Parks Board in the capacity as Game Capture Officer. Thousands of animals were shot yearly in the attempt to alleviate grazing in Parks. The task fell on Jan’s shoulders to try and remove the animals alive. After applying the method from East-Africa, capturing animals on horseback and in nets, a time consuming and tedious method with high mortalities, Jan finally came up with the idea to capture animals in mass with woven opaque plastic sheets and the aid of a helicopter, during 1968. This technique, now known as the "Oelofse Method", revolutionized conservation in its entirety in Southern Africa. Translocation of animals could now take place in mass and thousands of animals were and are still re-located to private sanctuaries, conservancies and National Parks throughout Southern Africa. He visited South America, parts of America and many other place on invitation, to teach and assist other bodies of conservation’s in their endeavours to capture wild animals in mass. Jan, a dynamic and enterprising man soon started his own capture business. He returned to Namibia during 1975, leased approximately 5000 hectare of land, a farm with the name of Etjo previously used for cattle ranching. He pitched his tents under a huge Acacia tree, fixed the telephone to the tree trunk, and with only N$ 700.00 in his pocket, courage, determination and the love for nature, he worked towards his goal. He re-introduced many new species of game to the leased land, which he later purchased, together with neighbouring land, named Okonjati and thus founded the Okonjati Game Sanctuary. It took 30 years to build up the Okonjati Game Sanctuary to its size of 30 000 hectares today and create an environment for hundreds of different species of wildlife and birds. Elephants were introduced during 1985, while White Rhino were introduced during 1975 already, as well as many different species, like the rare Roan and Sable Antelope, who found a place of refuge in the sanctuary.