Kenya Wildlife and Wildlife Safaris
When people speak of a "safari" images are immediately conjured up of wildlife roaming the grassy open plains and a big snow capped mountain in the background providing the ultimate safari picture....this is Kenya...and more specifically Amboseli National Park. Kenya offers a wide variety of different national parks and reserves all with different vegetation types and therefore favouring different wildlife species, some being better for grazers, others for predators. It is selecting a combination of these parks and reserves which provides you with the ultimate Kenyan Wildlife Safari.
Kenya is famous for its big wildlife sightings and more specifically the Big Five. What it doesn't have however is the primates and Great Apes; more information on these gorilla safaris, lemur safaris and chimpanzee safaris can be found via the World Primate Safaris website. In comparison with the big wildlife destinations of Southern Africa including Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa, the game densities and volume is much larger in Kenya. The sheer diversity and volume is evident as you drive the grassy plains specifically in the Masai Mara which is one of the most famous wildlife parks in African if not the world. The Masai Mara has also been made even more famous by the TV programmes of the Big Cat Diaries, which is filmed and produced in the middle of the Mara at Governor's Camps.
Bird Watching in Kenya:
Kenya has a huge variety of bird species with approximately 12% of the world's species which is as a result of the varying habitats that can be found all over Kenya and in the different parks and reserves. These species include a variety from flightless birds such as the ostrich, to tiny finches, sunbirds and also a number of waterbirds and migratory species. There is no specific "best area" to see birds as there is such a huge variety in each region.
Kenya is at the forefront of wildlife conservation and has always been seen as the flagship destination for safaris and pioneering conservationists. A few of the conservation and research organisations that exist include: Amboseli Elephant Research Project, Save the Rhino, the Laikipia Predator Project and a variety of smaller scale projects throughout the Masai Mara National Reserve.
Kenya has a variety of endangered animals and these are what the safari goers and wildlife enthusiasts visit the country to see. Some of the endangered species highlights are, elephants, rhino, Rothschild's giraffes, roan antelope. Other species that are popular with visitors are obviously the Big Cats including lions, leopards, cheetahs and hyenas.
Kenya Wildebeest Migration:
The greatest wildlife spectacle on Earth! In July, 1.3 million wildebeest, 200,000 zebra and 300,000 thomson's gazelle gather and start moving north from the grasslands of Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve. The herds continually follow the rains in search of fresh grass and this attracts thousands of visitors every year to the Serengeti and Masai Mara. Most people come to see a river crossing, dramatic as thousands of beasts converge on one crossing point as crocodiles lie in wait in the murky waters and predators lurk in the long grass. The best time to see these crossings in Kenya is around the months of August and September, when the herds cross the Mara and Talek Rivers. From October onwards, the herds once again start their move southwards and back to the plains of the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. The migration can be followed in Kenya between the months of July and October.