Tsavo East National Park, Kenya
The total combined area of Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks of Kenya makes Tsavo one of the world's largest wildlife sanctuaries. Lying about halfway between Nairobi and Mombasa it covers 20,812 square kilometers. Tsavo East is larger and more arid than Tsavo West, but not less frequented by safari tourists.
The vegetation in Tsavo East National Park is an endless savannah grassland with thorny bushes and a bit of swampy marshland near Voi River. The landscape is unique and exotic because of the Yatta Plateau formed from the lava that oozed from Ol Doinyo Sabuk Mountain. Only a small area of Tsavo East National Park's vast nature reserve is open to the public.
The largest river that passes through this park is the River Galana. A great variety of animals can be seen: lions, leopard, cheetah, zebras, giraffes, serval, antelopes, kongoni, lesser kudu, oryx, klipspringer, impala, stripped hyena, ostriches, gazelles, buffalos, elephants and many more, including numerous bird species. A variety of migratory and native birds are seen. The birds are viewed between late October and early January, and come from as far as Eastern and Western Europe. Commonly seen birds in Tsavo are African skimmers, goshawks, red and yellow bishops, palm nut vultures and the white-headed buffalo weavers.
The Tsavo soil is a very rich, red colour and this gives rise to the rather interesting sight of 'pink elephants' strolling across horizon! Among the rarer mammals that can be spotted here are Klippspringer. Usually these shy creatures that stay high up on rocky escarpments but in Tsavo they can be seen amongst the lava boulders in the rather alien landscape in the Chyulu area.
Droughts are much more common in Tsavo East than Tsavo West Nationals Parks, and Aruba Dam built in 1952 has dried up completely at times although it covers an area of 85.4 hectares. This wilderness, seemingly hostile, is nevertheless inhabited by a wide range of wildlife including lion prides, zebra, several species of antelope among them lesser kudu and hartebeest, warthog and ostrich as well a elephant herds which plunder their way through bush and scrub to the permanent waters of the Athi River.
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