Thursday, January 21, 2010

Holidays in Africa: Go on Safari to Kenya or Tanzania

By Karl Strauss

Over the years Kenya and Tanzania have proven to be the best safari destinations world over with tourist opting to have best of both worlds where safaris itineraries are customized to cover the best parks of both countries.

The parks in these two countries are home to the big 5 ie Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant and the Bufallo. The game reserves, parks and wildlife sanctuaries in these two countries also host countless of other wild animals which ensure that no visitor to these two countries will ever get bored. For wildlife photographers this would be their best chance to make maximum use of their cameras as they feast their eyes. Apart from wild birds, visitors will also get to enjoy other natural attractions like lakes and man made monuments.

The highest rated and most popular parks to visit In Kenya include: The Maasai Mara game reserve famed for holding the annual wildebeest migration recently named seventh wonder of the world and is referred to as the greatest natural phenomenon.

It is also home to the big 5 not to mention 95 species of mammals, amphibians, reptiles and over 485 species of birds. it also hosts a major concentration of migratory herbivores including about 250,000 zebra and 1.3 million wildebeest, gazelle, Topi, hippo, hyena, giraffe, leopard and mongoose. The best time to visit the reserve is during the months of July and October;

Amboseli national park is another park in Kenya that is home to over 53 species of herbivores and carnivores. The most interesting animal species here is the elephant that number over 1000. Other wild animals found here include the gerenuks, wildebeest, hyenas, baboons and zebras.We also have over 425 bird species. The best time to go on a safari to Amboseli is the months of January-February and June-September in the dry season.

Lake Nakuru National park is famous for the millions of flamingos and pelicans found here and serve as an important sanctuary for the Rhino species both Black and White Rhino easily spotted in their favorite hangout which is under acacias by the Lake shore.

Other game includes huge herds of waterbuck, zebra, buffalo, the endangered Rothschild Giraffe and other bird species. Other parks found in Kenya include, the Tsavo national park, Aberdares and Mt. Kenya national park, Lake Baringo national reserve, Arabuko sokoke national park and many others.

In Tanzania, Serengeti National park stands out as the most famous in this country. This park also plays a part in the Great Wildebeest Migration and its actually bigger than Masai Mara. The park comfortably holds over 1 million wildebeests and over 300,000 thompsons gazelles and 200,000 zebras.

Other wild animals that can be found in this park include giraffes, impalas, elands, hippos, cheetahs, lions and the klipspringer. The best time to visit Serengeti park would be between the months of December and June.

Ngorongoro crater hosts up to 25,000 large mammals most of which are grazers, and out of which zebra and wildebeest comprise almost half, the rest being gazelle, buffalo, eland, hartebeest and warthog.

We have quite a huge number of predators including the lions and spotted hyenas because of the large population of herbivores. The other notable large animal found here would be the elephant.

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