Lake Nakuru National Park Things to Do

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The flight of the Pelican is another wonder to behold at lakeside, to see them gliding by without a sound, just a twitch of a wing or feather to change direction. These birds that despite their size only weigh around 10 kgs love the type of marshland here associated with the shallow lake. To differntiate between the male and female loo at the beak, the male's is slightly curved downwards, wheras the female's is straight.

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Getting down to the lake is not far from the Lake Nakuru Lodge and if there was nothing else, just the flamingos, it'd be a wonder in itself. The moving, swaying mass of birds that never seems to stop leaves you breathless. And when they take off !!!Quite funny to actually see them "running" on the water before the flight. Besides the flamingos there are pelicans galore. They look very ungainly but to seem them gliding into land. There are of course other birds and mammals include the hippos out in the water, hyena and we got to see only the black rhino, but that is a fabulous sight, just 8 metres away. There are as well the ever-present Cape Buffalo and we caught a small family of baboons playing.

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Buffalo is very unpredictable animal and that is what makes it to be very dangerous. According to the African statistics, buffalo is the second most lethal animal for the humankind, soon after hippo. Usually it looks very quiet, grazing or ruminate, keeping themselves in a small herds. Buffallo has very big and powerfull head with extremelly sharp horns, that's why even lions avoiding them. Lions would attack adult buffalo only if very hungry and in such a case atleast three or four to one.
Do not disturb or challenge buffalos, it could be extremelly dangerous and most probably mortal. Buffalo is able to run faster then humans could!

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Besides wilderbeasts and zebras, antelopes are the most numerous inhabitants of savannah. Grant's antelope can be seen all around Kenya, gathering in a small herds or even staying alone. It is easy recognizable because of beautiful colour of fur and two dark stripes at the back side.

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Rhino is very remarkable animal, looking big and extremely powerfull, almost scary. Wherever I saw it rhino was absolutely dull for everything around him except for the grazing. This big fellow paid attention only when I started to approach more closer, in order to take better pics of him and his companion. Then I realized there was third animal too, probably baby rhino laying on the grass or sleeping. It was what stopping me not to go more closer.

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Waterbuck is, by it looks, very similar to European deer, powerfull and fast animal but very timorous. Fact is, whenever I saw it around in Kenya could took pics of it from the car only, as soon as I did step out of car in order to approach more closer, waterbuck just run away. Waterbuck stays in the areas rich of water and greenery, mostly alone or in a couple. Actually, have never seen the herd of waterbucks.

WE are excited to see a different type of giraffe The giraffes in Lake Nakuru are not the Masai giraffes found elsewhere in southern Kenya and in Tanzania, but a different giraffe subspecies called Rothschild giraffes, brought to Lake Nakuru from areas in western Kenya in a conservation effort.
It's so wonderful to watch these elegant endangered animals grazing peacefully on the plentiful acacia trees.
New research has inicated that the Rothschild giraffe, may in fact be separate species. More knowledge on this is hopefully to come.

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Lake Nakuru National Park opened to visitors in June 1968. The main reason for the creation of the national park was to protect its huge flocks of the lesser flamingo.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. Over 1 million flamingoes in the park literally turn the shores of Lake Nakuru pink.

We visited in the dry season when the numbers are down and even then it is a sight to behold.