Parks & reserves: Aberdare National Park
Wildlife
The Aberdare wildlife is awesome, though the thick vegetation cover makes it difficult to spot animals except from the lodges. The rich forest sustains populations of elephant, buffalo, warthog and several species of antelope, like waterbuck, duiker, suni, dik-dik, eland, bushbuck and reedbuck. The park protects a healthy population of black rhino and also offers the chance to see some of the typical forest species, such as the giant forest hog or the shy and beautiful bongo, perhaps the rarest and most splendid of all Kenyan antelopes.
Primates are represented by black and white colobus, Sykes' monkeys and vervet monkeys. Regarding the felines, lions show their mountain adaptation, tree-climbing behaviour and a longer and speckled coat. Lions have proliferate in such a way that a culling program has been undertaken to protect some of the herbivores, particularly the rare bongo. Leopards and servals are also found, sometimes in their melanic variety, showing a black coat which is usually associated with an adaptation to the high altitude.
More than 200 species of birds have been registered in the park. Among them the visitor may spot the crowned eagle, which feeds on monkeys, or hear the noisy silvery-cheeked hornbill. Sunbirds are represented by the violet Tacazze, the malachite or the scarlet tufted malachite in the high moorlands. Some species of doves and pigeons are usual inhabitants of the upper forest layers. Waterholes usually host black-headed herons, Egyptian geese, sacred ibis and yellow-billed ducks, among other species.
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