Kenya’s National Parks: Among The Best Places In The World For Wildlife Observation

Kenya is a land of great natural beauty, where exotic animals roam: fearsome predators like the big cats; massive and powerful rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and elephants; elegant and graceful giraffes, zebras, and antelope; unusual animals like wildebeest, topi, and cape buffalo; colorful and amazing birds; unique carnivores like the hyena.

Kenya has more than 50 national parks and reserves and is the most popular safari destination in Africa. It is a great place to visit and one of the best places in the world to observe wildlife.

During two weeks in three Kenya national parks and reserves, we marveled at the abundance and diversity of wildlife. Kenya respects and values its wildlife and historically has taken wildlife management very seriously. Kenya banned hunting in 1977 and has a zero tolerance policy regarding poachers in national parks - they are shot on sight.

We were treated wonderfully everywhere we visited. Kenyans are warm and friendly people who appreciate visitors. It is safe to eat anything served at hotels catering to tourists from the United States and United Kingdom, and bottled water is readily available.

Accommodations in and near the Kenya national parks are found at prices from budget to luxury. You may rent a car or rent a vehicle with a driver, usually for a full package tour. The best way to see wildlife is to travel with an experienced Kenyan safari guide.

Samburu National Reserve

In Samburu National Reserve, very dry, mostly open grassland, or savanna, is mixed with acacia and thorn trees. The lush vegetation along the banks of the Uaso Nyiro River, which runs through the park, draws elephants, giraffes, zebra, and other animals. Lions, leopards, and cheetah hide in the brush and prey on numerous species of antelope and other animals. Exotic birds are easily seen.

We knew it would be a fabulous two weeks in Kenya when, on the way from the park entrance to our safari camp, driving under thorn trees adorned with as many as 40 nests of the fascinating weaver birds per tree, we saw three cheetahs, several elephants, small herds of zebra, giraffes, impala, oryx, gazelles, and lions on a kill. The next day we saw even more, including two lions mating; and watched a fight between two male lions. 

Lake Nakuru National Park

Lake Nakuru is one of a group of alkaline “soda lakes” in the Great Rift Valley, which together are a priority region for the World Wildlife Fund for conservation. The park is enchantingly beautiful, encompassing the lovely lake, luxuriant forest of yellow-barked acacia, as well as open grasslands and rocky ridges. It has been a sanctuary for the critically-endangered white rhinoceros and black rhinoceros since the 1970s, and we observed both species at fairly close range. Rothschild’s giraffes graze in the acacia forest. Cape buffalo and plains zebra are commonly seen, as are impala, gazelle, and other types of antelope. Lions and leopards hunt; baboons play along the roads; and greater and lesser flamingos along with many other birds are attracted to the lake - although in smaller numbers in recent years due to the rising water level in all the Rift Valley lakes.

Masai Mara National Reserve

We quickly understood the deep reverence of our Kenyan guides for what Kenyans simply call the Mara. The Masai Mara National Reserve, contiguous with Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, is part of the Mara-Serengeti Ecosystem, a vast, beautiful, and wild land populated by millions of magnificent animals. A single gaze across the landscape might include giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, topis, elephants, impalas, and gazelles all at once. Very likely a lion, leopard, cheetah or hyenas are stalking some of these animals or feeding at a kill. Rhinos are less common but stroll through the same landscape, while rivers and pools are populated by hippos and Nile crocodiles. Exotic birds including dramatic African crowned cranes, hornbills, storks, herons, secretary birds, and many raptors, along with hundreds of species of other birds, are found. 

Highlights were watching a lioness move her three cubs, carrying one of them in her mouth; and observing a cheetah and leopard with cubs at fairly close range. Being a few feet from a lion or elephant in our safari vehicle, and watching a lion stalk and kill a wildebeest were amazing experiences. But our most vivid memories are simply trying to take in the immensity of the scenes and the abundance of wildlife.

We were fortunate to visit the Mara during the Great Migration of one to two million wildebeest, topi and zebra, during which these animals must cross the crocodile-infested waters of the Mara River. It is an indescribably thrilling experience to watch ten thousand animals cross the river within a matter of minutes, leaping wildly from the banks in clouds of dust, running, swimming, splashing and flailing through the water, then desperately clambering out on the opposite bank.

Wildlife in danger

We loved the magnificent panoramas and awesome wildlife of Kenya’s national parks. However, as Jim Burnett has written for the Traveler, poaching financed by international organized crime is having a terrible impact throughout Africa. Together, poaching, human population growth and development, and destruction of habitat, are taking a drastic toll on Africa’s beautiful land and its wildlife, and parallels what we have already done in North America. The statistics on the decline of wildlife in Africa are horrifying. The numbers of elephants and lions have declined by 90% in the last 50 years, and an award-winning international author has written of “The Specter of Africa Without Wildlife.”

As similar factors impact wilderness and wildlife around the world, national parks hold increasing importance in preserving the ecosystems on which all life depends. Otherwise, as Native American Chief Seattle foretold in a profound and disturbing truth, “When all the animals are gone, people will die of a great loneliness of spirit.”

Jean Bjerke is a nature photographer who seeks to capture the beauty of mountains, wildlife and wild places in her images, and to inspire others to want to protect the Earth's plants, animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. She and her husband Randy launched their photography business in 2010 and sell prints, photo note cards, canvas wraps, and licensing rights to our nature images through Randy & Jean Bjerke Photography.