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Nakuru National Park 1/4
Nakuru National Park is different from most other national parks in Kenya, in that it is fenced in.
The centre of the park is the alkaline lake, which is famous for the flamingos which feed (but do not breed) here, and for pelicans. The lesser flamingos feed on cyanobacteria, blue-green bacteria which fix nitrogen, and which live in quantity on only a small number of lakes.
The park has baboons, impala, zebra, lions, leopards, pythons and various other animals.
There is a herd of Rothschild Giraffes, and White Rhinos and Black Rhinos. The giraffes and rhinos are introduced, and do not naturally occur in the area of the park. These rhinos were introduced from South Africa. Despite the fence, and patrols, poaching of the rhinos continues, and we were told that only one black rhino - which we saw - survives.
The park describes itself as a bird paradise, and in the brief time we were there, we saw many different species. Bird watchers should definitely try to spend more than one night here. The lodge where we stayed was the Sarova Lion Hill Lodge. The garden of this lodge was a bird paradise in itself, though we didn't have enough time to explore it.
There are conservation threats to the rhinos and the flamingos, which are described in the Conservation section.