Lake Nakuru National Park was set up
in 1960 to protect the flamingos and other birds in the plains and hills
surrounding the lake. Its accessibility and close proximity to Nairobi
(only 140 km to the South East) makes it one of the most frequented
National Parks - popular with Kenyans and foreign tourists alike. The
park's relatively small size (188 sq km) allows you drive around the
entire park in half a day and although you will need to remain in a
vehicle there are designated picnic and camping sites at which stops
can be made.
The higher areas of the park are forested, while the lake itself is
surrounded with enormous white crusts of salt, some with areas of up
to 40 sq km. The warm alkaline waters encourage an unusual blue-green
algae to flourish and it is this abundant food source that attracts
hundreds of thousands of pink flamingos to the lake making it an unmissable
sight at certain times of the year.
The best viewing point of this spectacle is from Baboon Cliffs on the
western shore of the lake. Although the flamingos feed in Lake Nakuru
this is not their breeding ground. Their favourite site for breeding
is at Lake Natron over the border in Tanzania. At one time about 2 million
flamingos came to Lake Nakuru, although numbers have diminished in recent
years due, in some part, to intensive crop production methods which
have reduced the ability of the soil to absorb water. Many flamingo
now migrate to other lakes such as nearby Lake Elementaita.
While the flamingos undoubtedly remain the show stoppers at Nakuru,
the park is also home to a spectacular array of wildlife including colobus
monkey, leopard, spring hare, hippo, waterbuck, lion and roughly 450
species of bird life including the Fish Eagle who made the lake its
home after Tilapia fish were introduced into the lake waters to curb
the problem of malaria in the nearby town in the late 1950's.
Other notable park residents are the black rhino and white rhino. Indeed
Nakuru has become the most successful sanctuary in East Africa for rhino
and now houses healthy populations of both. Similarly the endangered
Rothchild's giraffe from the Soy Plains of Eldoret was introduced in
1974 and it too has bred successfully. There are also quite a few pythons
which can be spotted sometimes disconcertingly dangling from trees or
crossing roads.
The park is so close to Nakuru town that it is fenced to stop animals
wandering into the town and more importantly to prevent poachers from
entering the park. The closeness of the park to the town means the local
people have got to know their wildlife neighbours and school children
are often bused in for game drives thus strengthening the links between
the town and the park.
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