Amboseli National Park is in the southern part of Kenya in the Rift Valley. The Amboseli National Park is 353 square kilometers (219.3 square miles) and the game reserve portion is 243.65 Square Kilometers (151.4 square miles). The views of Mount Kilimanjaro make it worth coming to this park alone, but it is also known for its large elephant population.
Mount Kilimanjaro sits across the border in Tanzania and is a dormant volcano. It is 5,895 meters (19,341 feet) above sea level. It is the highest mountain in Africa, the highest free-standing mountain in the world and the highest volcano in the Eastern Hemisphere. This mountain is a major spot for hiking\climbing, there are seven established trails to Uhuru Peak. There is a large ice cap and glaciers which are the largest glaciers in Africa. It was created from volcanic activity more than 2 million years ago.
Lake Amboseli has some dry lake beds, at some point it was a very large lake and does fill up some during the rainy season.
Observation Hill is a high point in the park that offers great views of Mount Kilimanjaro’s peak, the plains of the park and the swamp areas. There is a variety of animals inhabiting Amboseli including Maasai Giraffe, zebras, cheetahs, monkeys and baboons, and a large variety of birds. There are multiple swamps throughout the park, which is why the elephants are drawn to living in this area.
There are 58 families or herd of elephants with a family consisting of 12-36 elephants. In 2010 when they started tracking the Elephants in Amboseli there were approximately 1,200 elephants, in 2018 the numbers had gone up to around 2,000. Elephants live an average of 60 years in the wild. As of 2020, Ganesh was the oldest elephant in Amboseli at 56 years old and is the oldest elephant in Amboseli as of that point.
This is a herd of elephants coming out of a deep swamp area.
The very young baby elephants walk underneath one of the adult females, usually their mother, as the swamp is over their heads so they can’t see where they are going. They hold their truck up to get air while crossing the swamps. This is a photo of two of the babies coming out of the swamp. The smallest was completely submerged while the other was big enough to cross as you can see how deep the swamp was based on the mud line on the larger baby.
The gestation period for mother elephants before giving birth is 22-27 months. The herds are all females and babies as the females work together to take care of the young. The oldest female elephant lead the families. Males are near but do not stay with the herd. An elephant average weight is 6-7 tons.
Elephants have elbows on their front legs and knees on their back so they bend differently. Their feet absorb the pressure of their weight which is why they are able to walk so quietly, you literally can’t hear them make any noise as they move along. You can also tell if an elephant is right or left-handed by their tusks, if the shorter tusk is on the right then they are right-handed.
They can communicate semi-sonically so you don’t even hear them talking. The males can leave the group and go off alone but know where their family is so they are able to join again later. They also have very good memories, they can remember things for up to 10 years.
When driving around the park you will see large fenced in areas, they have to fence in huge areas for 5-6 years to let the vegetation grow back after elephants have devastated it. Elephants eat about 300 pounds of food per day and drink about 200 liters of water. With each elephant needing to each that much and Amboseli having a huge population of elephants, they can clear vegetation of an area fairly fast so the park has to help manage letting areas regrow.
The hippos love the swampy areas of this park as well. Hippos are the most dangerous animal in Africa.
Amboseli is home to “White Wildebeest” which is different from those you see in the Serengeti or other areas of Kenya. They have white stripes unlike the others. The White Wildebeest don’t migrate like the other Wildebeest. Those in the Serengeti migrate in huge herds.
We also so Warthogs, Zebra, Giraffe and Ostrich.
There were also so many water birds along the swampy areas and the lake. There are now Lesser Flamingos in Amboseli, this has only been since about 2018 as thousands have always migrated to Lake Nukuru. But with the changes in weather and more rain then in the past, the water level at Lake Nukuru has risen and the algae that the flamingo come to eat can’t grow like before so they are finding other places in Kenya to go and Amboseli is one of those places.
The park supplies a few places to stay with Kibo Camp and Ol Tukai Lodge. We stayed at Kilima Safari Camp. It was a lovely place with beautiful grounds, lovely restaurant and the “tents” were huge. This was our “tent.”
Camp is really a deceiving term, while you are in a “tent” it is really like a hotel room that just has a few canvas walls. There was also a lovely pool.
Amboseli Nation Park and Game Reserve was gorgeous place with so many different animals and birds and the amazing views of Mount Kilimanjaro, you just can’t beat that view.
Note that all photos used in this post were taken by DaisyChainFun.