Kenya: Nairobi, the Only Capital with a National Park
Often, we don't appreciate the things that we have close by. And for us who live in Nairobi, this applies to the Nairobi National Park. In spite of its proximity and relatively low cost, many of us rarely visit it. And yet it is quite a fabulous park. And it is pretty special that 20 minutes out of our doorway we can be in a National Park enjoying wild animals with the city sounds completely blotted out.
The park was established in 1946, and was actually the very first national park established in Kenya. I was able to find this interesting historical picture of the park entrance in 1960. Apparently in the early 1900s when Nairobi was just established, animals roamed all over the plains. Nairobi residents had to carry guns in case they bumped into a lion at night. But gradually the animals were confined into the area to the Southeast of the city.
A man named Mervyn Cowie pushed to get a national park established by the unusual means of writing an anonymous letter to the East African Standard to demand the slaughter of all wild animals. Then he publicly pretended outrage and pushed his idea that the only way to prevent this was to establish a park. In a way he also started off Kenyas tourist industry.
Though it is quite small, the park has a pretty diverse set of wildlife. Giraffe graze serenely next to herds of buffalo. It has a high population of black rhino. The plains are dotted with zebra, gazelle, eland and wildebeest.
There are also lots of bird species. The guinea fowl have an impossibly intricate feather design topped by what looks for all the world like a blue helmet.
Some times you can spot fresh kills by the vultures circling in the sky, waiting patiently for their turn. I am not sure if this is one (maybe Kennie can confirm) but it looks like a Ruppells vulture. These have been spotted casually cruising at 37,000 feet (11,000m) above sea level, the highest recorded for any bird.
Any opportunity to do a food photoshoot! Actually we discovered a rather lovely picnic area in a hidden area of the park. In most of the parks in Kenya you are not allowed to be out of the car except in a few designated areas, so it's always nice when you can stretch your legs.
Just a short distance away from our picnic site, we came across this lioness that had some kind of tracking device attached to her neck. It was right at the edge of the park, and you can see some residential homes in the background. It was prowling around looking for lunch, and we sat and watched it for a while.
At one point she walked right up to us and across the front of the car, which was pretty thrilling. Lions are like that sign in rear view mirrors: They are bigger than they appear in pictures. Female lions can be 120kg and males 170kg, and most of this is muscle. They eat an average of 5-7kg of meat daily, can eat 30kg of meat in one sitting.
Then she heard something and quickly hid behind a bush, and peeked out to see what was going on. It was sooo catlike. A 120 kg muscle bound cat.
It was a couple of warthogs walking by. Instant stalking was the result from the lioness. she crouched down low and slowly started to creep up on the warthogs. Lions are only fast for a short burst so they try to start as close as possible to their prey.
Then a burst of speed as she charged forward, eyes fixed intently on the warthogs. Unfortunately for her (and fortunately for the warthogs) she wasn't close enough, and the warthogs heard her coming and skedaddled.
For us though it was pretty exciting to see an actual lion hunt in action. And we were also kind of happy that she failed because, for today at least, this guy right here is the hero of our story
