Kenya is one of the most visited safari destination in Kenya. The country offers an exceptional variety and density of wildlife, including the “Big Five” which consists of the lion, elephant, rhinoceros, African buffalo, and leopard. The “Big Five” was a term coined by hunters to encompass the most difficult and dangerous animals to hunt, as well as the most desired trophies. Fortunately, today, the only shots being taken are with cameras, but sightings of these animals remain as coveted as ever.
Wildlife
Kenya is famous all over the world for the Great Wildebeests Migration which sees millions of animals travel through the Maasai Mara Reserve to the Serengeti in search of greener pastures. It is estimated that around 1.3 million wildebeest, 200,000 zebras, and 18,000 antelopes make the journey annually. An estimate of over 250,000 wildebeest die each year as a result of drowning, from general weakness, attacks by predators, or from injury during along their routes or the Mara River. Despite this massive loss, there are still nearly 400,000 calves born each year. The Mara River is considered to be one of the best places to see the Great Migration in action.
Apart from the that Kenya is also home to gazelles, impalas, antelope, zebras, wildebeest, waterbucks, and Maasai giraffes. Big cats include cheetahs, the smaller serval, civets, and the caracal. Primates include colobus, vervet, and golden monkey, olive and yellow baboons . More than 1,135 bird species inhabit the country including the world’s largest bird, the ostrich, and one of the smallest, the sunbird. Kenya also hosts the “Little Five” which is made up of the antlion, the elephant shrew, the rhinoceros beetle, the buffalo weaver and the leopard tortoise.
Nature
Kenya has three Natural World Heritage Sites , they are Mount Kenya National Park, Mijikenda Kaya Forests, and Lake Turkana National Park. They were all listed by UNESCO
Apart from these World Heritage Sites are over fifty national parks and reserves that account for more than 17,000 square miles or 8% of Kenya’s total landmass. These areas include many different ecosystems like forests, wetlands, savannahs, marine, and arid or semi-arid regions. There are 23 terrestrial national parks, 28 terrestrial national reserves, four marine national parks, six marine national reserves, and four national sanctuaries. National parks offer complete protection of natural resources, and the only activities within them are for tourism and research, reserves allow certain human activities under specific conditions (i.e.. fishing in a marine reserve).
Kenya also has a wildlife service named Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS), it has over 100 field stations and outposts outside of the protected areas. These are important because much of Kenya’s wildlife lives outside of its largely unfenced protected areas. Wildlife moves in and out looking for new pastures and water throughout the year. This can cause problems as the wildlife interacts with people on private and community lands.
To control this, KWS works with communities to educate them on the effects of human/wildlife conflicts and to prevent such conflicts in the future. The main goals of the KWS are to enhance wildlife and visitor security, minimize human/wildlife conflicts, support community conservation initiatives, and complete research.
