Tsavo East National Park

Tsavo East National Park is one of the oldest and largest national parks in Kenya at 13,747 square kilometers. Inside the  Tsavo East National Park, the Athi and Tsavo rivers converge to form the Galana River. Most of the Tsavo East National Park consists of semi-arid grasslands and savanna.

Tsavo East Wildlife

Tsavo East National Park is regarded as one of the world’s biodiversity bastions, and its popularity is mostly due to the vast amounts of diverse wildlife that can be seen. The sight of  African dust-red elephants wallowing, rolling, and spraying each other with the midnight blue waters of the palm-shaded Galana River is one of the most reminiscent images in Africa. This, along with the 300 kilometers long Yatta Plateau, the longest lava flow in the world, runs along the western boundary of the park above the Athi River, was formed by lava from Ol Donyo Sabuk Mountain making for an adventure unlike any other in the Tsavo East. It is also famous for the Tsavo lions, a population whose adult males often lack manes entirely. Tsavo is home to around 12,000 elephants and over 10 percent of Africa’s great tuskers. The Megaherbivores are abundant and diverse and make up 70 percent of the large mammals in the larger Tsavo ecosystem

Attractions in Tsavo East National Park

Mudanda Rock is 1.6 kilometers of an inselberg of stratified rock that acts as a water catchment that supplies a natural dam below. The rock offers an excellent vantage point for the hundreds of elephants and other wildlife that come to drink and bathe during the dry season. Mudanda rock is a Precambrian basement rock between 570 and 4,550 million years old; that is popular with leopards and elephants, and thousands of years ago it used to be used by the hunter-gatherers known as the” Waliangulu” as a place where they dried their elephant meat ’Mudanda’, the place of dried meat

Aruba Dam

Aruba Dam was built in 1952 across the Voi River. The reservoir created by the dam attracts many animals and water birds, and the best place to see the rare Friedmann’s Lark– which is best identified by voice, most of its records are after rains when they are seen singing on top of bushes.

Lugard Falls

Lugard Falls, named after Frederick Lugard, is a series of whitewater rapids on the Galana River. Lugard Falls features a series of white water rapids and was formed in the Galana River, as a result of rocks that blocked the flow of water from the Galana River thus forming rapids that resulted in the waterfalls. Tsavo East Park can be accessed through Manyani Gate, Voi Gate, Buchuma Gate, and Sala Gate. There are also several airstrips in the park that allow chartered light planes.

Birdwatching in Tsavo East 

Tsavo East National Park is renowned for its stunning scenery, amazing megafauna, and breathtaking bird species. The birdwatching tour in the Tsavo East is a nature paradise with chances to spot fantastic birds such as the Martial Eagle, Golden Pipit, Somali Ostrich, Bronze-winged Courser, Somali Bee-eater, the rare Friedmann’s Lark, and Heuglin’s Bustard. These colorful, captivating and intriguing winged-wonders whizz around the vast Tsavo Park providing endless joy for birdwatchers. Between August to April, there are dazzling flocks of migrating birds that will be seen busy feeding in Tsavo East through every landscape. Tsavo habitat offers highly specialized bird species which have adapted to the many microclimates separated by areas of arid desert habitat 

Tsavo East National Park has a spectacular bird checklist and is an exemplary birding destination in Kenya  and highly rewarding with more than 500 bird species have been recorded. Birdwatching in Tsavo East National Park is done while in the vehicle, but there are some designated areas where alighting from the car is allowed, in places such as Mudanda Rock and Lugard Falls. If you’re itching for some twitching then Tsavo East should be in your list

Notable Birds in Tsavo East National Park; Somali Ostrich, Somali Courser, Bronze-winged Courser, Vulturine Guineafowl, African Blue Quail, Common Button-quail, Heuglin’s Bustard, Southern Yellowbill, Slender-tailed Nightjar, Dusky Nightjar, Black-headed Lapwing, Quail Plover, Bateleur, Palm-nut Vulture, African Barred Owlet, White-headed Mousebird, Eastern Yellow Hornbill, Common Scimitarbill, Taita Falcon, African Pygmy Falcon, Red-naped Bushshrike, Red-winged Lark, Friedmann’s Lark, Tsavo Sunbird, Heuglin’s Courser, Chestnut-bellied Sandgrouse, Violet-tipped Courser Dark-capped Social Weaver Scaly  Chatterer, Shelly Starling, Straw-tailed Whydah, Ashy Cisticola, Three-streaked Tchagra, Common Scimitarbill, Black Eagle, Pale Prinia.

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