Kenya

Some of Africa’s rarest animals—shy, striped bongos, melanistic black serval cats and small, fierce golden cats—find safety in Kenya’s high, mountainous Aberdare National Park.

Kenya’s wildlife is probably the best known of any country in the world, with its instantly recognizable array of lions, leopards, elephants, great throngs of wildebeests and zebras in migration, as well as more than 1,000 species of colorful birds.

Millions of pink flamingos congregate on alkaline lakes. Giraffes nibble from acacia treetops and rare bongos browse the understory. On mountaintops, alpine plants grow to prodigious heights—heathers can be more than 30 feet (10 m) tall.

In the MAASAI MARA WILDLIFE RESERVE, wildebeests, zebras, and gazelles join in one of the world’s great wildlife spectacles every year when they come from SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK in Tanzania to forage for fresh grass. AMBOSELI and TSAVO are famous for their elephants. Probably the most familiar picture of Africa is of elephants in Amboseli against a scenic backdrop of snowcapped Mount Kilimanjaro.

One of the world’s highest national parks is atop dazzling snowcapped Mount Kenya.

Animals that never (or almost never) need to drink thrive at SAMBURU/ BUFFALO SPRINGS national reserves, which have the only permanent water sources in an otherwise arid, hostile environment. 

Habitat variety in this East African country of 225,000 square miles (583,000 km2) ranges from Indian Ocean coastal beaches through high plateau country and a chain of volcanic mountains up to 17,058 feet (5,199 m), and finally to the dramatic escarpment of the Great Rift Valley in the west. The equator divides the country roughly in half so its lowlands are hot, and, where well-watered, steamy, and where arid on the northern deserts, searing—but its highlands arecool and pleasant. Rainy seasons are October–December and April–June.

Kenya

ABERDARE NATIONAL PARK

AMBOSELI NATIONAL PARK

LAKE NAKURU NATIONAL PARK

MAASAI MARA WILDLIFE RESERVE

MOUNT KENYA NATIONAL PARK

SAMBURU/BUFFALO SPRINGS

TSAVO NATIONAL PARK as well as...

Lake Bogoria National Reserve

Lake Baringo

Lake Naivasha

Crescent Island Wildlife Sanctuary

Nairobi National Park


More about the Reserves in Kenya  

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