Amboseli National Park lies at the foot of Africa's highest mountain, the Kilimanjaro (5895m) and is one of the most popular of Kenya's National Parks. It covers only 392 sq km but despite its small size and its fragile...
...ecosystem, it supports a wide range of mammals (well over 50 of the larger species) and birds (over 400 species).
Amboseli encompasses five main wildlife habitats: acacia woodland, rocky thornbush country, swamps, marshland and the East African open plains. A part of the park comprisesa pleistocene lake basin and within this basin is a temporary lake, Lake Amboseli, which is usually dry, but when the heavy rains return so do the flamingos and the whole surrounding area becomes green and lush again. Over 400 bird species have been recorded in the Amboseli area. The park is also renowned for its enormous elephant herds. It is also the home of the Maasai people who have learned to live in complete harmony with their environment and the wildlife which surrounds them. All round the park are occupied and abandoned manyatta - Maasai villages - quickly built out of bent poles and sticks and plastered with cow dung and equally swiftly abandoned when the grazing is finished and the herds must move on.
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