Lake Nakuru National Park- Kenya Safari holidays

Lake Nakuru national park is a land of idyllic landscape and scenery and cover  a approximately 188kilometre square. It is located in the central of Kenya, Rift valley province, Nakuru district and is about 140km North West of Nairobi. The lake is an alkaline that attracts algae for the lesser and greater flamingos.

The greater flamingos are characterized by a red bill with black tip and a deep pink plumage is less commonly seen than the lesser flamingo, which is slightly smaller and has a pink bill and a white plumage.

Flamingos at Lake Nakuru

The greater feeds on shrimps and small fishes in the lake while the lesser feeds on blue - green alga which grows only in alkaline water. This is the park that guarantees you both the black rhinos and white rhinos with other magnificent wildlife.

The park is world known for its Millions of flamingos and other bird species with animals’ game viewing. The bird watcher’s paradise is what attracts lot of tourists to visit this park hence boosting Kenya safari tours. However, White pelicans can be seen at the southern end of the lake where they feed on tilapia fish, an alkaline-tolerant fish which were introduced into the lake to fight against mosquitoes and increase the population of pelicans.

The Park also contains Kenya’s largest population of rhinos. The surface of the lake occupies about a third of the park.

Rhinos at Nakuru national park

The lake is fringed by alkaline swamps with areas of sedge, along the river inflows and springs. The surrounding areas support a dry transitional savanna with Lake Margin grasslands.

However, the number of Flamingos has been decreasing recently, perhaps due to too mass tourism, pollution resulting from industries waterworks nearby who dump waste into the waters or simply because of changes in water quality which makes the lake temporarily inhospitable.

Traveling around the park is the hyrax hill prehistorically sites, the national Monument where you learn more facts on information on the existence of the various attraction sites in the area. In addition, is the Menegai crater known to be one of the largest calderas of the world and the largest in Kenya.

Sharon Sheery

Kenya safari tours

www.soinafricasafaris.com

Experience Maasai Mara scavengers in Kenya safaris

Maasai Mara in Kenya is the best park that guarantees you wildlife game viewing with great birding safari. Most of these wild animals dependents from each other for their survival in this ecological niche thus booking to Kenya safari holidays will enable you learn more on how these animals survive in their natural environment. Among the hyenas, jackals, marabou stork and vultures are known to be the scavengers of the Maasai Mara plains that clean up the Mara ecosystem. The park has various types of vultures namely;

African white-backed vultures

This type of vulture is the most common scavenger in Masai Mara.

White-back vulture

 These vultures can eat over one kg of meat in just two minutes and feed in large groups. They are found mostly resting on top of tall trees surveying the Mara plains so that they may spot any animal that might have been killed and thus became an advantage to them to feed on the left over. 

Rüppell’s vultures  

This type of vulture can be identified by their white streaked feathers and yellow beak. Unlike the other vultures that nest in trees,

these birds hatch their chicks in tall cliffs far outside Masai Mara’s borders but later fly back when they are fully mature to scavenge in the Mara ecosystem.

Lappet-faced vultures  

Lappet –face vulture is one of the biggest vultures and are named for their bald, red heads.

Lappet-faces vulture

These vultures tend to travel in pairs and are dominant over all the other vultures in the Mara ecosystem. Given a whole gazelle they tear up and finish within seconds leaving behind only the carcasses to the hyenas.

White-headed vulture  

White-headed vulture are known

White-headed vulture

to be rarest vultures in Masai Mara triangle, they are characterized with red-beaked, pale-faced birds. Not quite as big as the Lappet-faced vultures, tend to be shy and solitary nature and thus rarely seen.

Hooded vultures  

Hooded vultures are one of the smallest vultures and tend to pick around the edge of the carcass. They have a slightly more varied diet than the other vultures, sometimes they are spotted eating the dung of other animals or feeding at garbage dumps like elephant dung in the Mara ecosystem.

Black-backed jackals  

Black-backed jackals are usually seen traveling in small groups or pairs. They are small in size but cunning and intelligent guys.

Black back jackal

They quickly snatch a piece of meat from vultures or hyenas and often rush into a carcass, steal a piece of meat, and run off with it.

  

Spotted hyenas 

Spotted hyenas are known for its laugh and thus reason why they are call laughing hyenas. Their sounds are often heard during the night when these carnivores are celebrating meat or hunting time. They have the greatest jaws which enable them to chew through even the toughest bones, making them formidable scavengers in the Maasai Mara national reserve

Sharon Sheery

Kenya safari holidays

www.soinafricasafaris.com

Witness this amazing culture for the Maasai people in Kenya safaris

Kenya is well known to be inhabited by the Maasai people with typical cultures. These Maasai people express their cultures through various ceremonies and rituals.

Maasai warriors practicing in the Manyatta

Among these ceremonies includes circumcision of  both  boys and girls, marriages, warrior shaving ceremony where the best shaver can be identify among the chosen group, meat eating ceremony where guys compete eating in different styles in the bush. Other ceremonies include milk-drinking ceremony among others. All these ceremonies signify a different meaning in the Maasai people.

Traditionally, boys and girls must undergo through these initiations for minors prior to circumcision. However, many of these initiations concern men while women's initiations focus on circumcision and marriage and men form age-sets moving them closer to adulthood. 

In addition to the Masai People, they have a reputation of being fierce warriors. Warrior hood prepares the young males to be not only responsible for themselves but for their community as well.

Maasai girls ready for circumcision

This is because they are known for their bravery and courage. Typically Masai warriors are never seen without their sharply honed spears during the entire life time. Their main responsibility is to protect the homestead, maintain water sources for the community, and protect the livestock from wild animals and theft. It is true that when they surrounded a marauding lion, they crossed on it and speared it to death without any fear. This is the reason why the lions fear guys with red shuka.

Masai women are in charge of taking care of the entire home like  milking cows, fetching water and firewood, bearing children as many as they can because  children are considered bringing wealth, preparing food for the entire family, repairing their homes, milking the cows and tending their small children. Children are taught to respect their elders, and they quickly learn the ways of Masai family life as they grow. Young girls are taught to care for domestic duties and boys are instructed in the care and protection of livestock from attack by wild animals.

Moreover, their nomadic way of life led to no attachments to possessions, and togetherness banded by the age sets of those who underwent circumcision ritual together.

Maasai warriors competing on jumping race

Likewise, a Masai woman belongs to the entire age-set and sexual jealousy does not exist with these people as they are abiding with these norms traditions.

However, women do not have their own age-set but are recognized by that of their husbands.  Ceremonies are an expression of Maasai culture and every ceremony is a new beginning of life. They are rites of passage, and every Maasai child is eager to go through these vital stages of life. These cultures are of great values to Kenya and attract tourists from both locally and international tourists and thus Kenya safaris remain to be of more vital as far as wildlife and cultures are concern.

Sharon Sheery

Kenya safaris

www.soinafricasafaris.com