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Kenya Wild Safari
Kenya formally the Republic of Kenya, is a nation in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean to its southeast and at the equator, it is bordered by the Somalia to the northeast, the Ethiopia to the north, the Sudan to the northwest, the Uganda to the west and the Tanzania to the south. The Lake Victoria is located to the southwest, and is shared with the Uganda and the Tanzania.
With its capital city in Nairobi, Kenya has plentiful wildlife treasury containing 1000’s of animal species. It has a land area of 580,000 kilometer2 and a population of nearly 39 miln residents, representing many different peoples and different cultures. The country is named after the Mount Kenya, a significant landmark and 2nd among Africa's highest mountain peaks.
Kenya is the country of 47 counties each with its own administration semi-autonomous to the central government in the capital, Nairobi. The country's natural features are as varied as its people. It has a long coastline along with the Indian Ocean and as you advances inland the landscape changes to savannah grasslands, arid and semi-arid bushes. The central regions and the western parts have the forests and the mountains while the northern regions are near desert landscapes.
The Archaeological research point to contemporary man first appeared in Kenya and as a result, the country with it’s the East African neighbors is almost certainly considered the cradle of mankind. Due to the varied geography and weather, the people performing varied economic activities and thus developing varied cultures have been living in Kenya since the dawn of mankind. The first and successful attempt to merge these diverse and rich cultures under a nation was done by the arrival of the Europeans around 19th century.First, peoples of then Kenya interacted through trade, intermarriages and frequent wars though each remained politically independent of the other.
The major African nation, Kenya is classified as a developing and sometimes an emerging and exciting African nation. Its economy is the largest by GDP in the East and the Central Africa and Kenya's capital, Nairobi is a major commercial hub. The country traditionally produces world renowned tea and the coffee. Recently, it has developed a formidable horticultural industry thereby becoming the major exporter of fresh flowers to the Europe. The service industry is driven by the telecommunications sector which is one of the most successful and innovative in the Africa.
The Common Eland also known as the Southern Eland or Eland antelope is the savannah and plains antelope found in the East and Southern Africa. It's also measured to be the largest antelope in the African continent. It is native to the Botswana, the Burundi, the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe; and is possibly extinct in Angola. The elands are spiral-horned antelopes belonging to the Bovid tribe of Tragelaphini. The Females weigh 300–600 kg (660–1,300 lb), measure 200–280 cm (79–110 in) from the snout to the base of the tail and stand 125–153 cm (49–60 in) at the shoulder. The Bulls weigh 400–900 kg (880–2,000 lb), are 240–345 cm (94–136 in) from the snout to the base of the tail and stand 150–183 cm (59–72 in) at the shoulder. The tail adds a further 50–90 cm (20–35 in). The Coats are generally smooth at most of the body with a rough mane. Females have the tan coat, while the males have a darker tan coat with a bluish-grey tinge; there may also be a series of the white stripes vertically on the sides of bulls .But as males age they tend to turn a grayer color (Pappas 2002). Males have dense fur on their foreheads and a large dewlap.
The African buffalo, affalo, nyathi or Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer) is the large African bovine. It is not closely related to the slightly larger wild Asian water buffalo, but its ancestry remains unclear. Owing to its unpredictable nature which makes it highly dangerous to humans, it has not been domesticated, unlike its Asian counterpart, the domestic Asian water buffalo.
The wildebeest, also named the gnu, is an antelope of the genus Connochaetes. It is a hooved mammal. Wildebeest is Dutch for "wild beast" or "wild cattle" in Afrikaans (beest = cattle), while Connochaetes obtains from the Greek words konnos ("beard") and khaite ("flowing hair").The name "gnu" originates from the Khoikhoi name for these animals, "gnou".
The Connochaetes includes 2 species, both native to Africa: the black wildebeest, or white-tailed gnu (C. gnou), and the blue wildebeest, or brindled gnu (C. taurinus). Gnus belong to the family Bovidae, which includes antelopes, cattle, goats, and other even-toed horned ungulates.
The Rhinoceros also known as rhino, is a group of 5 extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. 2 of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia. The rhinoceros family is characterized by its great size with all of the species able to reach one tonne or more in weight; an herbivorous diet; and a thick protective skin, 1.5–5 cm thick, formed from layers of collagen positioned in a lattice structure; relatively small brains for mammals this size (400–600 g); and a large horn. They generally eat leafy material, although their ability to ferment food in their hindgut allows them to subsist on more fibrous plant matter, if necessary. Unlike other perissodactyls, the African species of rhinoceros lack teeth at the front of their mouths, relying instead on their powerful premolar and molar teeth to grind up plant food.
The Elephants are large land mammals in 2 genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta. 3 species of elephant are living today: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant (also known as the Indian elephant). All other species and genera of Elephantidae are extinct, some since the last ice age although dwarf forms of mammoths may have survived as late as 2,000 BCE. Elephants and other Elephantidae were once classified with other thick-skinned animals in a now invalid order, Pachydermata.
The giraffe is the African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the major ruminant. Its scientific name, which is similar to its archaic English name of camelopard, refers to its irregular patches of color on a light background, which bear a token resemblance to a leopard's spots. The average mass for an adult male giraffe is 1,200 kilograms (2,600 lb) while the average mass for an adult female is 830 kilograms (1,800 lb). It is approximately 4.3 metres (14 ft) to 5.2 metres (17 ft) tall, although the tallest male recorded stood almost 6 metres (20 ft).
