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Nairobi National Park - Kenya Safaris
Nairobi, as a capital city, is unique in having a wildlife park on its doorstep. Indeed the city abuts the Nairobi National Park on all but the southern perimeter so it is possible to photograph a rhino, browsing peace fully among the whistling thorn with high-rise office buildings in the backdrop. Some of the wildlife is migratory and when vegetation and water are present outside the park, they move out into Maasailand through the unfenced southern boundary. There is also a resident population of plains game and predators so a visit at any time of the year is a rewarding experience. Well laid out, with exceptionally well-maintained roads, the park is a model for all others, geophysically and administratively. Of the most popular species only the elephant is an absentee. But the rest of the Big Five: leopard, lion, buffalo and rhino - as well as a multitude of other creatures are all well represented.
Tell Me More About Nairobi National Park Located Near in Nairobi Kenya and What To Expect When Visiting During A Safari In Kenya
The Athi River at the park's far end forms a delightful natural boundary to the park and provides shady walks through a riverine forest well populated with monkeys and birds and in the river pools lay the hippo and crocodile. Large populations of giraffe, wildebeest, eland and Thomson's gazelle dominate the plains, with strutting secretary birds and powerful ostrich as attractive counter-points. Nairobi National Park's pride of lions are well observed by the park staff and an inquiry at the gate, when entering, will usually elicit their whereabouts. Cheetah, too, have made the park famous and these might be located with a similar inquiry.
More recently Nairobi National Park has been designated as a rhino sanctuary and more than 50 rhinos had been moved into the park from remote parts of the country where poaching was rife. So Nairobi National Park is really the most favored place in the country to see rhino. Along the south-western boundary of the park, the scenery is magnificent; this is an area of steep valleys created by streams joining the Athi River. Hyraxes are plentiful on the rocks alongside the road and the sure-sighted may spot klipspringer or mountain reedbuck, generally unobserved by the thousands of visitors who search the park annually. Later, on the boundary road there are splendid views over the Kitengela plains, the dispersal area for the park's ungulates. The park side of the river is an area favored by zebra.
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Within the Nairobi National Park's 117 square kilometers, there are over 80 species of mammals and more bird species than can be found in the whole of the British Isles. During the rains, both the long and the short, wild flowers are in profusion and there are places where the plains are an unending wave of yellow daisies (Bidens Palustris), which seems not to be liked, as food, by any wildlife.
Near the main gate to the Nairobi National Park is the Animal Orphanage. Rather than a home for the lost and lame it is maintained more for those Kenyans who are unable to visit the parks than for visitors. Near the Banda gate Daphne Sheldrick runs an orphanage, where she cares for young elephants and rhinos. Visitors are allowed to visit at certain times and a donation is expected. Young elephant may not always be present, as they are not kept longer than necessary.
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