Amboseli National Park
National Park - 392 sq km - Managed by Kenya Wildlife Service
Amboseli is famous for its big game - elephants,
lions and cheetahs are the main attractions - and for its great scenery beauty.Amboseli embodies five main wildlife habitats,
plus a generally dry lake-bed - Lake Amboseli. These are open plains; extensive stands of yellow-barked acacia woodland; rocky,
lava strewn thorn-bush country; swamps and marshes; and at the western end of the reserve, above Namanga, the massif of Ol
Doinyo Orok rising to over 2,760m (8.300ft) and still for the most part zoologically unexplored.
The landscape is dominated by the glistening
majestic snow cap of Mount Kilimanjaro immediately to the south.One of the most popular national parks in Kenya, Amboseli offers
a wide range of accommodation: with four luxurious lodges inside the park; Amboseli new lodge, Ol Tukai lodge, Serena lodge,
Kilimanjaro lodge (total 602 beds) and a further two campsites. There are a number of small tented lodges just outside the
park boundaries (total 72 beds).
Main game viewing lies in the eastern half of the park, in the vicinity of Ol Tukai lodge and
lakes Engoni Naibor and Loginya. Leading here is a network of roads and tracks. Game includes elephant, lion, leopard, cheetah,
Maasai giraffe and buffalo. Also common game such as zebra, eland, coke's hartebeest, white-bearded Gnu, waterbuck, Thomsons
and Grant gazelle and impala. Black rhinos are seen though occasionally as they are rare due to poaching in the mid-1970s.
In the
dry bush country towards Namanga you can find two interesting antelopes; the long -necked gerenuk (giraffe-necked antelope)
and the fringe-eared oryx. In addition are smaller animals such as; black faced vervet monkey and yellow baboon, black-backed
jackals, spotted hyena and bat-eared foxes which are often seen basking in the sun outside their dens.
Bird life is in abundance especially near
the lakes and swamps where you may find water birds. The Madagascar Squacco Heron shows up in intervals and the long toed
lapwing is a resident in small numbers. Yellow-throated, chestnut-bellied and black-faced, water in hundreds during the dry
season.Birds
of prey include the six species of vultures, the Taita falcon and the Southern branded Harrier eagle.Birds common around the
lodges and camps are the yellow weaver bird, Taveta golden weaver and superb starling...
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