There are 61 Kenya National Parks and National Reserves. The area for wildlife conservation is about 44,359 square kilometres or 8% of Kenya's land mass of 580,367 square kilometers.
The protected areas embrace various types of ecosystems namely: forests, wetlands, savannah, marine, arid and semi-arid. The protected areas comprise of 23 terrestrial National Parks, 28 terrestrial National Reserves, 4 marine National Parks, 6 marine National Reserves and 4 national sanctuaries.
The protected areas are categorised either as parks or reserves. The distinction between the two categories is: in parks there is complete protection of natural resources and the only activities allowed are tourism and research.
Maasai Mara (Maasai Mara) is one of Africa's greatest wildlife reserves and it is one of the best-known and most popular reserves. Masai Mara and the Serengeti National Park form Africa's most diverse, incredible, and most spectacular ecosystems and possibly the world's top safari big game viewing ecosystem. Safaris are without a doubt some of the best you ever get.
WildlifeWildebeest, topi, zebra, and Thomson's gazelle migrate into and occupy the Mara reserve, from the Serengeti plains to the south and Loita Plains in the pastoral ranches to the north-east, from July to October or later. Herds of all three species are also resident in the reserve.
ActivitiesA national park in Kajiado South Constituency in Kajiado County, Kenya. The park is 39,206 ha (392.06 km2) in size at the core of an 8,000 km2 (3,100 sq mi) ecosystem that spreads across the Kenya-Tanzania border. The local people are mainly Maasai, but people from other parts of the country have settled there attracted by the successful tourist-driven economy and intensive agriculture along the system of swamps that makes this low-rainfall area, average 350 mm (14 in), one of the best wildlife-viewing experiences in the world with 400 species of birds including water birds like pelicans, kingfishers, crakes, hamerkop and 47 raptor species.
The park protects two of the five main swamps, and includes a dried-up Pleistocene lake and semiarid vegetation.
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Located in central Kenya around 160 kilometres from Nairobi by road, it stretches a hundred kilometres north to south within the third highest mountain range in Kenya. The Aberdare National Park is covers the higher areas of the Aberdare mountain range which is an isolated volcanic range that formed on the eastern end of the Great Rift Valley.
Wildlife
Wildlife present in the protected area include lion, leopard, elephant, East African wild dog, giant forest hog, bushbuck, mountain reedbuck, waterbuck, Cape buffalo, suni, side-striped jackal, eland, duiker, olive baboon, black and white colobus monkey, and sykes monkey. Rarer sightings include those of the African golden cat and the bongo. Species such as the common eland, serval live in the higher moorlands.
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Located in northern Kenya it is a wildlife sanctuary incorporating the Ngare Ndare Forest and covering over 62,000 acres (250 km2). The Conservancy is home to a wide variety of wildlife including the rare and endangered black rhinos, Grevy's zebras and sitatungas. It also includes the big five (lion, leopards, elephants, rhinos and Cape buffaloes). Lewa holds over 12% of Kenya's eastern black rhinoceros population and the largest single population of Grevy's zebras in the world (approximately 350 individuals).
The Conservancy is also home to the Northern Rangelands Trust, an innovative partnership with a number of communities to the north who have given land for the preservation of wildlife. Lewa has its own education program that helps develop schools and students. Lewa Wildlife Conservancy is located in Meru County, south of Isiolo town but north of Mount Kenya.
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The sight of dust-red elephant wallowing, rolling and spraying each other with the midnight blue waters of palm-shaded Galana River is one of the most evocative images in Africa. This, along with the 300 kilomtere long Yatta Plateau, the longest lava flow in the world, make for an adventure unlike any other in the Tsavo East.
Wildlife
The park forms the largest protected area in Kenya and is home to most of the larger mammals, vast herds of dust -red elephant, Rhino, buffalo, lion, leopard, pods of hippo, crocodile, waterbucks, lesser Kudu, gerenuk and the prolific bird life features 500 recorded species.
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From the sight of fifty million gallons of crystal clear water gushing out of from the under parched lava rock that is the Mzima Springs to the Shetani lava flows, land of lava, springs, man-eaters and magical sunsets welcome to Tsavo West a beautiful, rugged wilderness. The savannah ecosystem comprises of open grasslands, scrublands, and Acacia woodlands, belts of riverine vegetation and rocky ridges including the Poacher's Lookout where visitors can see the teeming herds in the plains below. Tsavo West offers some of the most magnificent game viewing in the world.
The spectacle Mzima Springs is the sight of fifty million gallons of crystal clear water gushing out of from the under parched lava rocks, forming the most welcoming and lovely scene in Africa. Ancient lands of Lions, in 1898 the Uganda railway construction was abruptly halted by the two of the most voracious and insatiable man-eating lions appeared upon the scene, and for over nine month waged intermittent warfare against the railway and all those connected with it in the vicinity of Tsavo.
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Hell's Gate National Park lies south of Lake Naivasha in Kenya, north west of Nairobi. Hell's Gate National Park is named after a narrow break in the cliffs, once a tributary of a prehistoric lake that fed early humans in the Rift Valley. Established in 1984, it is known for its wide variety of wildlife and for its scenery. This includes the Fischer's Tower and Central Tower columns and Hell's Gate Gorge. The national park is also home to five geothermal power stations at Ol karia. The park is equipped with three basic campsites and includes a Masai Cultural Center, providing education about the Masai tribe's culture and traditions.
Wildlife
There is a wide variety of wildlife in the national park, though few in number. Examples of little seen wildlife include lions, leopards, and cheetahs. However, the park has historically been an important home for the rare lammergeyer vultures. There are over 103 species of birds in the park, including vultures, Verreaux's eagles, augur buzzard, and swifts.
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An ornithological paradise with over 450 bird species. The park, covering around 188sq km lies on the floor of the Great Rift Valley in Nakuru District of the Rift Valley Province.
Kenya's first Rhino sanctuary
The park is surrounded by wooden and bushy grasslands, a splendor of a grey-green forest of Euphorbia Candelabrum, and offers sanctuary to some of the world's most endangered creatures, like the white and the black rhino. Kenya's first rhino sanctuary is established in this park since the rhino became an endangered species. The park hosts a large population of them.
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