The famous Lake Nakuru National Park is renounced for its huge population of tens of
thousands of beautiful pink flamingoes. Its difficult to describe the view in
words as a pink blanket of feathers lay at your feet. Lake Nakuru National Park
was designated as the national bird sanctuary in 1961 to protect these
flamingoes. They descend on the shallow shores of this lake. It was declared a
national park in 1968. The water of lake is alkaline in nature and is also given
the name as soda lake. The best place to view the birds is from Baboon Cliff,
where you can look out over the dazzling fringe of pink around the lake's
shores. You are not always guaranteed to see this extravaganza - there are times
when the lake conditions change and the birds move on to other soda lakes.
Scientists believe that the flamingo population at Nakuru consumes about 250,000
kilos of algae per hectare of surface area per year. There are two types of
flamingo species: the Lesser flamingo can be distinguished by its deep red
carmine bill and pink plumage unlike the greater, which has a bill with a black
tip. Because of its natural beauty, Lake Nakuru in Kenya is popular for its
travel and tourism attractions.
Lake Nakuru water supports a habitat rich in biodiversity including a variety of aquatic flora and fauna. The Lake Nakuru is also inhabited by water mammals mainly hippopotamus and clawless otters while the terrestrial part of the park supports a large number of other African plain mammals. The park is also a sanctuary of black and white rhinoceros and the Rothschild's Giraffe. The park has a large reserve of over 300 species of birds. The introduction of a species of salt-tolerant Tilapiagrahami (for mosquito control) opened the way for the colonization of the lake by many species of fish eating birds (Cormorants, pelicans, hamrnercop, etc). Lake Nakuru is located 157 km from Nairobiand covers an area of 188 square km. The park elevation varies from 1200 m to 1800 m. The rhino's were almost at the bring of extinction due to poaching when a careful effort by government and park officials have brought them back. Zebra's and Bohor's reedbuck can be seen around the lake and rock hyraxes and klipspringers on the steep cliffs. You can also find buffaloes, impala, eland and more. Among the predators are lion and leopard, the latter being seen much more frequently in recent times. Lake Nakuru also has large sized pythons that inhabit the dense woodlands, and can often be seen crossing the roads or dangling from trees.
The best time to travel Lake Nakuru National Park is from October through April as waterfowl numbers grow. Between March through may the lions, hippos and antelopes have their young. It is 140 km northwest of Nairobi. You can either fly to the Naishi airstrip or come by road via A104. In recent years, there have been wide variations between the dry and wet seasons' water levels. It's suspected that this is caused by increasing watershed land conversion to intensive crop production and urbanization, therefore reducing bacteria and more flamingoes over time have started going to the nearby lakes.
