Known as the birthplace of the traditional safari, Kenya is home to a broad array of wildlife — protected and championed by the East African nation’s vital conservancies. This region has been one of Africa’s top destinations since Arab traders began traveling to the country in the first century, leaving their legacy on the Swahili-imbued culture of the coast. Kenya’s diverse habitats are home to the famous Big Five: elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and rhinoceros. Find out more about going on safari in Kenya.
Mara River
The country’s national parks showcase dramatic landscapes, from the craggy peaks of Mount Kenya — Africa’s second-highest mountain — to the sweeping savannahs of the Maasai Mara, home to one of the world’s most spectacular natural phenomena: the Great Wildebeest Migration.
Much of Kenya’s wildlife lives outside the unfenced national parks, however, making it vulnerable to poaching and human-wildlife conflict. Local communities are key to conservation here, among them the renowned red-robed Maasai pastoralists who are as much a part of the landscape as the lions and elephants that share their land.
Since the 1970s, some 200 conservancies have been set up across the country. These are areas of land — sometimes private ranches, sometimes parcels of individually or communally owned pastures — joined together to help protect wildlife. Conservancies provide a win-win situation. Wildlife benefits through habitat restoration and more rangers on the ground, while the community secures much-needed income from employment and lease fees paid by upmarket camps on their land. And visitors staying in the camps, limited to a small number on each conservancy, enjoy a richer, more varied and exclusive safari experience that directly gives back to local people.
Today, Kenya’s conservancies collectively cover more of the country’s wild habitats than all its national parks put together, often protecting some of Africa’s rarest species, including rhinoceroses, wild dogs and the little-known hirola antelope, of which only around 400 survive.
Gerenuk, long-necked antelope
WHERE IN KENYA IS BEST FOR WILDLIFE?
Home to the Big Five, antelopes and big cats aplenty, the world-famous Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya’s southwest is the go-to place for most visitors. This is especially so from July, when some 2 million wildebeest and zebras come thundering across from Tanzania’s vast Serengeti plains in search of greener pastures. The action-packed Mara River crossings are a compelling if gruesome sight: braying beasts lured by the smell of rain risk crossing waters brimming with crocodiles. Should they survive, they’ll find predators waiting for them on the opposite banks.
Around October, they repeat it all on their return to the Serengeti. Unsurprisingly, the Mara is far more crowded during the migration, and this is when neighboring conservancies come into their own. Away from the crowds, they may be further from the river, but many will offer full-day game drives for the experience.
Second only to the Mara for wildlife, Laikipia is a high-altitude plateau, upon which sits a patchwork of vast private ranches and conservancies lying in the northern shadows of Mount Kenya. This is Kenya’s rhinoceros country, with many conservancies involved in remarkable successes. The best known is Ol Pejeta, home to East and Central Africa’s largest black rhinoceros sanctuary, with over 165 of the critically endangered pachyderms.
In southern Kenya, the Tsavo ecosystem spans 16,000 square miles, roughly the size of Switzerland. It includes Tsavo East and Tsavo West national parks with a tapestry of conservancies and ranches. Kenya’s biggest national park, Tsavo East, has vivid terracotta-colored tracks cutting a swath through vast plains that stretch for miles to the Sagala Hills.
Wildebeest herd
Its smaller sister, Tsavo West, is a hilly, wooded wilderness interspersed with lakes, volcanic lava flows and iconic views of Kilimanjaro towering in the distance. Along with diverse wildlife that includes buffalo, hartebeest, zebras, lions and leopards, nearly 15,000 elephants roam these plains, a staggering 40% of Kenya’s entire population, all tinged red from Tsavo’s soils.
Other regions worth visiting include Meru National Park, the former home of Elsa the lioness, raised by George and Joy Adamson, whose story is told in the film Born Free. Wildlife-rich Amboseli in the south is hilly and lush, set against the backdrop of snow-capped Kilimanjaro and home to huge herds of elephants. Lesser-visited Samburu National Park is dry and dusty with rocky outcrops and hills sustained by the Ewaso Nyiro River. Together with the remote northern Kenyan conservancies, it harbors some desert-specialist animals not so easily seen elsewhere, including Grévy’s zebras, reticulated giraffes, wild dogs and longnecked gerenuk antelopes. On the Ethiopian border, you’ll find Turkana, the world’s largest permanent desert lake, home to thousands of crocodiles.
Surprisingly, you don’t even have to leave Kenya’s capital to see wildlife. Elephants are absent but Nairobi National Park, with its strange backdrop of sparkling skyscrapers, has rhinos, giraffes and plenty of plains game that are prey for its lions and hyenas.
Lions
WHAT ARE THE MOST POPULAR SPECIES WITH VISITORS?
Symbolizing strength and courage, the lion is Kenya’s national animal. They’re easily seen in the Maasai Mara, Laikipia and the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem, and are sleepy creatures in the heat of the day, hunting mostly in the cooler early mornings or evenings. During the migration, wildebeest provide many a predator’s meal. Gawky and graceless, with long faces, thick necks, sloping shoulders and puny hips, local legend has it that God created them using leftover bits of other animals. Yet, en masse, they have a certain allure, their hides a glossy palette of gray, mink, brown and black.
Among Kenya’s estimated 34,000 elephants are the iconic but incredibly rare “Big Tuskers,” whose huge tusks almost drag along the ground. But you’d be lucky to spot them: only around 20 survive, of which 10 are believed to be in Tsavo. Far easier to see are orphaned elephants in the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s sanctuary in Nairobi and the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in the northern Namunyak Conservancy, both doing sterling work in rewilding rescued youngsters.
Rhinoceros
Many of Kenya’s 2,000 precious rhinoceroses are protected by conservation projects. Loisaba recently received 21 black rhinoceroses in the country’s biggest relocation project, the species having been locally extinct for almost 50 years. Neighboring conservancies Lewa and Borana took down their fences in 2014, now sharing 250 black and white rhinoceroses between them. And in Ol Pejeta, guests can meet Najin and her daughter, Fatu, the last two surviving northern white rhinoceroses in the world.
This was also home to their famous father and grandfather, Sudan, who became the poster boy of conservation as the last male northern white. Sadly, he died of old age in 2018. Scientists here are working to preserve the species, breaking new ground in protecting its genetics by creating an IVF baby using frozen sperm and eggs from Najin and Fatu.
Lilac-breasted rollers
HOW CAN I MAKE THE MOST OF MY TRIP?
Kenya’s conservancies allow much more freedom than government-run national parks — depending on where you stay, you can join walking safaris, boat trips and go horseback riding or even cycling. You’re not restricted to times on game drives either, with nightdrives allowing you to see the world of nocturnal species. It also pays to get up early. This is when the natural world is at its most active: hear the dawn chorus in full song, watch silent, stalking predators on the hunt, sense the sudden fear of their potential prey as they dart away — all playing out under the rising sun.
Be sure to take warm clothes for the surprisingly cool morning air or suitable layers in neutral shades of khaki and beige to subtly blend in with the bush, especially on walking safaris. But avoid blue and black since these attract the nasty nip of tsetse flies. Take your own field guide and binoculars to avoid missing out on the finer details of wildlife-watching. Finally, don’t dismiss the little creatures while you’re there. Although the Big Five are justifiably popular, birds such as lilac-breasted rollers doing their acrobatic courtship dance or an army of sizzling ants on their march to massacre termites can be equally fascinating.
By Sue Watt
