Travel to Kenya to enjoy a hot-air balloon safari
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There are nine species of giraffes. They are Reticulated or Somali giraffe, Kordofan giraffe, Nubian giraffe, South African or Cape giraffe, Angolan or Smokey giraffe, West African or Nigerian Giraffe, Rhodesian or Thornicroft giraffe, Rothschild or Ugandan giraffe and Maasai or Kilimanjaro giraffe. Each of them is differentiated by range as well as by the color and size of coat patterns. The taxonomy of the different species is not widely agreed. Some scientists regard West African and Kordofan giraffes as a single subspecies, the same way with Rothschild and Nubian giraffes, as well as with South African and Angolan giraffes.
The giraffe has a distinctive coat pattern that covers its entire body except the underbellies. The pattern stands out in some a bit more than the others. Its skin color is tan with dark brown patches on males and light brown patches on females. The patches can be sharp or fuzzy edged; brown or cream shaded; yellow to black in color; and large, medium or small in size. The shapes, colors and sizes of the patches as well as the whiteness surrounding them and the separation between spots vary by subspecies. The spotty coat of giraffes serves 4 major functions.
Instinctively, female giraffes return to the place where they were born to give birth. They give birth while standing, and the placenta sack bursts when the baby falls headfirst to the ground. The calves receive a rough welcome, falling over five feet to the earth. So, the first thing a calf experience is a sudden drop onto the hard, cold ground, but it never gets hurt. The calves can run within an hour after birth. Sometimes it is left alone by the mother for most of the day. During times like this, the calf remains quiet until the mother returns.
Travel to Kenya to get to know the giraffes
Wildlife had declined by about 2 thirds since the 1970s. The main causes of decline in wildlife numbers in Kenya include land pressures, population growth, sedentarization, drought, poaching, over-harvesting, habitat loss, climate change and ecosystem degradation. But the most serious is settlement and subdivision. Wildlife numbers in the country declined sharply following the subdivision of land. The migratory herds of zebra, wildebeest, eland, and other species had all vanished due to the impact of burgeoning permanent settlements as well as privatization in the open pastoral lands. Several smaller migratory species including impala, Thomson’s gazelle, oryx, and kongoni have declined too.
The 2 famous tourist lakes of Kenya are lake Naivasha and lake Nakuru. Lake Naivasha is a freshwater lake situated in the southwest of Naivasha town at an altitude of 1,884m and is at the highest elevation of African rift valley. The lake is approximately 100km from Nairobi at the foot of Mount Longonot, which is a perfectly shaped volcano. Lake Nakuru is in East African part of the great rift valley, which is 156km northwest of Nairobi in the district of Nakuru. There are some rocky outcrops as well as the largest African euphorbia forest on the eastern side.
The East African rift valley system has paved the way to two branches – eastern rift valley and western rift valley. The two branches divide Kenya north-to-south and enters Tanzania where it dies out. Lake Victoria is between these two branches. These fractures follow the old sutures between continental masses and the Tanzania craton. Both the eastern and western branches are grouped with Ethiopian rift to create the East African rift system. Thus, what appears to be a whole rift is actually a sequence of related rift basins that create the distinctive topography and geology of East African rift valley.
Travel to Kenya to enjoy game drives
Africa beckons all the elephant conservation lovers to Kenya. Alleviating poverty often entails finding the right balance between preservation and use of natural resources. These entail how people use the resources to live well and build their lives in their particular territorial context. Under these conditions, conservation has been depicted as a solution for sustainable development and economic growth. In particular, conservation efforts are expected to help secure livelihoods and benefit human wellbeing, but at the same time pose no risk to the poor. Consequently, understanding local people’s aspirations have become central to the conservation interventions at the community level.