Etosha National Park - or the "great white place" - is Namibia's flagship national park. Proclaimed in 1907 in a bid to stop uncontrolled hunting, the park boundaries remained unchanged until 1958. Further reductions in size meant that Etosha now measures about one fifth of the original size, but Etosha National Park is still one of the largest and most important protected areas in the world. Stretching more than 350 km from east to west and covering an area of 22 270 square kilometres, the park has 114 mammal species - several of which are rare and endangered - 380 bird species, 110 reptile species, 16 amphibians and one fish species. It also has 16 main vegetation zones, and is the only place where dwarf saline shrub savanna vegetation is found in Namibia.