2 DAYS HELLS GATE AND LAKE NAKURU

Initially established as a bird sanctuary, the parks careful management and re-introduction program has since ensured a thriving mammal fauna which includes some of Kenya’s most rare species.

Rare Rothchilds giraffe and endangered black and white rhino are common in the park, amidst large herds of Cape buffalo, ranging through the woodlands and grasslands.

The acacia woodlands shelter herds of graceful Impalas, shaggy waterbucks and shy bushbuck; rocky hillside provide a perfect habitat for rock hyrax.

To the south of the lake, herds of Thomson’s and Grant’s gazelle dot the plains.

Carnivores are well presented by lions, leopard, cheetah, spotted and stripped hyena, serval cats as well as the silver-backed and side-stripped jackal, civet, genet and mongoose.

The most visible primates are the somber olive baboons and the mysterious black-faced vervet monkey, while dignified troops of colobus monkey often prance among the trees.

As Kenya’s first established rhino sanctuary, the park holds one of the largest black rhino concentration in the country.

Two species thrive there; the square-lipped or white rhino, preferring to graze in the short grass of the plains, and it’s more nervous browsing cousin, the black rhino, that tends to keep to the cover of thicker bush.