Lake Nakuru National Park Safari Kenya, Lake Nakuru Tour Safari
LAKE NAKURU NATIONAL PARK:
Nakuru is one of the alkaline Rift valley lakes and a wonderful place for birds, the lands that skirt the lake is habited at times by over one million flamingos. Roger Tory Peterson the popular ornithologist described it as “the greatest bird spectacle on earth”. The fortunate sentence has now become a cliché and is used up to ped-up-ism for promotional aims. Sad to note, during the past years, flamingos have disappeared sporadically to
appear again later in a similarly weird way, but flocks are now greatly reduced.
The park was created in 1968, but ever since 1961, there was a place for birds at the lake’s south side. With the support of the Wildlife Fund, Kenyan government inhibited a plan to get the nearby grounds in a bid to extend the reserved region. In 1964, the place had already included the entire lake, whose area ranges from 5 to 40Km2, in addition to a shore trip.
Since its creation as a national park, both authorities and conservation organisations have continued to win the battle to private property and human residences, further widening the premises of the park in 1968 and 1974 to its present area of 188Km2.
The fact is that the park lies only 4Km away from the populous Nakuru town. This poses many results, almost all bad for the preservation of this natural area.
After Nairobi National park, Nakuru national park is second to none as far as accessibility is concerned, since Nakuru is the fourth city in the country and the head town of the Rift Valley. Thus the park gets a big number of tourists, over 100,000 per year, of which a bigger part belongs to Kenyan citizens and settlers.
But traffic is neither the only nor the biggest of the threats: Dumping, which is not controlled from the neighbouring city brings a great environmental degradation, to an extent that at particular periods, flamingos have totally disappeared from the park. In 199409, there were big numbers of flamingo deaths brought about by water poisoning with heavy metals and toxins, because of combined climatic and human factors, which encouraged or enabled the overgrowth of cyano bacteria and toxic blue-green algae. This culminated in the beginning of a program with a purpose of processing Nakuru’s industrial and urban remains, water and pollution monitoring and preservation of the lake basin.
On the other hand, attacking of the environment by the neighbouring inhabitants and of the rhinos by poachers, pressurized to fence the park perimeter with 74Km of metal wire. The first fence was put up in 1976 and strengthened after 10 years, with a sun-powered electric fence, appreciation goes to the co-operation of the British Rhino Rescue Trust.
The various views are directed to protect an exceptionally useful region for wildlife variety, which prompted the creation of the park but also a great lot of mammal groups, local or foreign, which stay and breed successfully in the park. Among the latter are rhinos. In 1987, the park was proclaimed a place for the conservation of these animals with volume and cause danger. From that time, introducing again of species both black and white, has made Nakuru into one of the outstanding rhino shelters in Kenya and an area where two of the five rhino species remaining in the world can be found easily by the tourist.
The park occupies that lake and a landship all over the northern, eastern and western lands that skirt the lake, while southward, the land continues further to Malakia falls, which borders the south premises. The lands that skirt the lake are surrounded by swamps that when the seasons are too dry, they vanish leading to big white salt crusts. The riverine forest opens up southward in a bush and acacia tree savannah. The eastern and western lands that skirt the lake are constructed by ridges that provide gorgeous views over the lake. Lion Hill, Baboon cliff and Out of Africa. At the west land that skirts the lake, Baboon cliffs are abetter liked home for a number of the park’s species, whereas at east, a part of a Lion Hill is occupied by a splendid euphorbia or candle tree forest, offering the landscape a prehistoric view. The park has many picnic areas and some hides have been put up next to the lake from where birds can be observed.
Adding to birds and rhinos, the park is a habitat for a big number of mammals, carnivores for example, lions and leopards inclusive.
The short distance to the city and the misunderstandings so often between environment conservation and development of the local inhabitants have urged various projects having a purpose of making better the conditions in the region and giving the inhabitants a chance to find this wildlife shelter, which is unique. Kenya wildlife service has financially sponsored programs for health and education, including construction of classrooms and dispensaries, purchasing facilities, and others. On the other side, the park has a bus, which provides guided visits to the park for Nakuru residents at low prices.
Lake Nakuru Safari Kenya
Section: lake-nakuru |