Meru National Park is a Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

n Game park located east of Meru

Meru, Kenya

-Transport:The City of Meru is linked to Nairobi by a paved road, whether from the south around the east side of Mount Kenya, via Embu, or from the northwest around the west and north side of Mount Kenya, via Nanyuki and Timau....

, 350 km from Nairobi

Nairobi

Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...

. Covering an area of 870 km², it is one of the most famous known parks of Kenya. It has abundant rainfall, 635–762 mm in the west of the park and 305–356 mm in the east. The rainfall results in tall grass and lush swamps, which make it difficult to spot game. It has a wide range of wild beasts like elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...

, hippopotamus

Hippopotamus

The hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...

, lion, leopard

Leopard

The leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...

, cheetah, black rhinoceros and some rare antelopes.

Meru was one of the two areas in which conservationists George Adamson

George Adamson

George Adamson , also known as the "Baba ya Simba" , was a British wildlife conservationist and author...

 and Joy Adamson

Joy Adamson

Joy Adamson was a naturalist, artist, and author best known for her book, Born Free, which describes her experiences raising a lion cub named Elsa...

 raised Elsa the Lioness

Elsa the lioness

Elsa the lioness was raised by game warden George Adamson and his wife Joy Adamson in Kenya. Elsa and her two sisters, 'Big One' and 'Lustica', first came under the care of the Adamsons when only a few weeks old. They had become orphaned when George was reluctantly forced to kill their mother...

 made famous in the best selling book and award winning movie Born Free

Born Free

Born Free is a 1966 British drama film starring Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers as Joy and George Adamson, a real-life couple who raised Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lion cub, to adulthood, and released her into the wilds of Kenya. The movie was produced by Open Road Films Ltd. and Columbia...

. Elsa the Lioness is buried in this park and part of Joy's ashes were scattered on her gravesite. Joy Adamson

Joy Adamson

Joy Adamson was a naturalist, artist, and author best known for her book, Born Free, which describes her experiences raising a lion cub named Elsa...

 released Pippa the cheetah in this park.

Between the years 2000 and 2005, the Kenya Wildlife Service

Kenya Wildlife Service

The Kenya Wildlife Service, otherwise known by the initialism KWS, is a Kenyan state corporation that was established in 1990 to conserve and manage Kenya’s wildlife...

, helped by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), restored Meru National Park from near ruin to one of the most promising tourist destinations in Eastern Africa, solving the parks poaching problem. IFAW donated $1.25 million to this major restoration project, and with this money aided in improving the basic infrastructure and provided essential equipment and vehicles for law enforcement activities.

The Mulika Lodge Airport

Mulika Lodge Airport

-Location:Mulika Lodge Airport is located in Meru National Park, in Meru District, Eastern Province in the Republic of Kenya.By air, Mulika Lodge Airport lies approximately northeast of Nairobi International Airport, Kenya's largest civilian airport...

 serves Meru National Park. Tourist attractions include the home of George and Joy Adamson, Adamson's Falls, views of Mount Kenya

Mount Kenya

Mount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian , Nelion and Point Lenana . Mount Kenya is located in central Kenya, just south of the equator, around north-northeast of the capital Nairobi...

, and the Tana River.

External links

• Kenya Wildlife Service – Meru National Park
• Elsa the Lioness of Born Free fame grave in Meru Park. Many visitors to the park still visit to pay their respects.