The Samburu National Reserve is located on the banks of the Ewaso Ng'iro

Ewaso Ng'iro

Ewaso Ng'iro is a river in Kenya which rises on the west side of Mount Kenya and flows north then east and finally south-east, passing through Somalia where it joins the Jubba River....

 river in 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...

; on the other side of the river is the Buffalo Springs National Reserve

Buffalo Springs National Reserve

Buffalo Springs National Reserve is a protected area in the Isiolo District of Eastern Province, in northern Kenya.-Organization:The reserve was established in 1948 as part of the Samburu - Isiolo Game Reserve, and the present boundaries were established in 1985...

 in Northern Kenya. It is 165 km² in size and 350 kilometers 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...

 and ranges in altitude from 800 to 1230m above sea level . Geographically, it is located in Samburu District

Samburu District

Samburu District is a district in Rift Valley Province, Kenya. It covers an area of roughly 21,000 km² in northern Kenya where the Samburu tribe live...

 of the Rift Valley Province

Rift Valley Province, Kenya

Rift Valley Province of Kenya, bordering Uganda, is one of Kenya's seven administrative provinces outside Nairobi.Rift Valley Province is the largest and one of the most economically important provinces in Kenya. It is dominated by the Great Rift Valley which passes through it and gives the...

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In the middle of the reserve, the Ewaso Ng'iro

Ewaso Ng'iro

Ewaso Ng'iro is a river in Kenya which rises on the west side of Mount Kenya and flows north then east and finally south-east, passing through Somalia where it joins the Jubba River....

 flows through doum palm

Doum palm

Hyphaene thebaica, with common names doum palm and gingerbread tree, is a type of palm tree with edible oval fruit. It is native to the Nile valley in Egypt and Sudan, and in riverine areas of northwestern Kenya.-Uses:...

 groves and thick riverine forests that provides water without which the game in the reserve could not survive in the arid country.

The Samburu National Reserve 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...

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The Samburu National Reserve is also the home of Kamunyak, a lioness famous for adopting oryx

Oryx

Oryx is one of four large antelope species of the genus Oryx. Three of the species are native to arid parts of Africa, with a fourth native to the Arabian Peninsula. Their pelage is pale with contrasing dark markings in the face and on the legs, and their long horns are almost straight...

 calves.

Habitat

Samburu National Reserve can be entered via the Ngare Mare and Buffalo Springs gates. Once inside the reserve, there are two mountains visible: Koitogor and Ololokwe. Samburu National Reserve is very peaceful and attracts animals because of the Uaso Nyiro river

Ewaso Ng'iro

Ewaso Ng'iro is a river in Kenya which rises on the west side of Mount Kenya and flows north then east and finally south-east, passing through Somalia where it joins the Jubba River....

 (meaning "brown water" and pronounced U-aa-so-Nyee-ro) that runs through it and the mixture of acacia

Acacia

Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...

, riverine

Swamp

A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

 forest, thorn trees and grassland

Grassland

Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...

 vegetation. The Uaso Nyiro flows from the Kenyan highlands and empties into the famous Lorian Swamp

Lorian Swamp

The Lorian Swamp is an area of wetlands on the Ewaso Ngiro river in Kenya.The swampy zone is long and has a greatest width of , covering an area of .Apart from the Ewaso Ngiro river, the swamp is also fed by wadis from the southwest and the northeast....

. The natural serenity that is evident here is due to its distance from industry and the inaccessibility of the reserve for many years.

Wildlife

There is a wide variety of animal and bird life seen at Samburu National Reserve. Several species are considered unique to the region, including its ts unique dry-country animal life: All three big cats, lion

Lion

The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...

, cheetah

Cheetah

The cheetah is a large-sized feline inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species' paws...

 and leopard

African Leopard

The African Leopard is a leopard subspecies occurring across most of sub-Saharan Africa. In 2008, the IUCN classified leopards as Near Threatened, stating that they may soon qualify for the Vulnerable status due to habitat loss and fragmentation. They are becoming increasingly rare outside...

, can be found here, as well as elephants, buffalo

African Buffalo

The African buffalo, affalo, nyati, Mbogo or Cape buffalo is a large African bovine. It is not closely related to the slightly larger wild Asian water buffalo, but its ancestry remains unclear...

 and hippos

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...

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Other mammals frequently seen in the park include gerenuk

Gerenuk

The Gerenuk , also known as the Waller's Gazelle, is a long-necked species of antelope found in dry bushy scrub and steppe in East Africa, from Somalia and eastern Ethiopia through northern and eastern Kenya to northeastern Tanzania...

, warthogs, Grant's gazelle

Grant's Gazelle

The Grant's gazelle is a species of gazelle. Its populations are distributed from northern Tanzania to southern Sudan and Ethiopia, and from the Kenyan coast to Lake Victoria. Its Swahili name is Swala Granti.-Taxonomy and genetics:...

, Kirk's dik-dik

Kirk's Dik-dik

Kirk's Dik-dik is a small antelope found in eastern and southwestern Africa. It grows to in length and weighs up to when full grown. It has a reddish-brown head and a tail that is long....

, impala

Impala

An impala is a medium-sized African antelope. The name impala comes from the Zulu language meaning "gazelle"...

, waterbuck

Waterbuck

The Waterbuck is a large antelope found widely in Sub-Saharan Africa.Waterbuck stand at the shoulder. Males weigh and females . Their coats are reddish brown in colour and become progressively darker with age; they have a white 'bib' under their throats and white on their rumps...

, Grevy's zebra

Grevy's Zebra

The Grévy's zebra , also known as the Imperial zebra, is the largest extant wild equid and one of three species of zebra, the other two being the plains zebra and the mountain zebra. Named after Jules Grévy, it is the sole extant member of the subgenus Dolichohippus. The Grévy's zebra is found in...

, Beisa oryx

East African Oryx

The East African Oryx , also known as the Beisa occurs in two subspecies, Common Beisa Oryx found in steppe and semi-desert throughout the Horn of Africa and north of the Tana River, and Fringe-eared Oryx south of the Tana River in southern Kenya and parts of Tanzania...

 and reticulated giraffe

Somali Giraffe

The Somali Giraffe, or more commonly known as Reticulated Giraffe , is a subspecies of giraffe native to Somalia, northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia...

. Rhinos

Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros , also known as rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia....

 are no longer present in the park due to heavy poaching

Poaching

Poaching is the illegal taking of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.It may be illegal and in...

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There are over 350 species of bird. These include Somali ostrich

Ostrich

The Ostrich is one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio. Some analyses indicate that the Somali Ostrich may be better considered a full species apart from the Common Ostrich, but most taxonomists consider it to be a...

, grey-headed kingfisher

Grey-headed Kingfisher

The Grey-headed Kingfisher has a wide distribution from the Cape Verde Islands off the north-west coast of Africa to Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia, east to Ethiopia, Somalia and southern Arabia and south to South Africa....

, sunbird

Sunbird

The sunbirds and spiderhunters are a family, Nectariniidae, of very small passerine birds. There are 132 species in 15 genera. The family is distributed throughout Africa, southern Asia and just reaches northern Australia. Most sunbirds feed largely on nectar, but also take insects and spiders,...

s, bee-eater

Bee-eater

The bee-eaters are a group of near-passerine birds in the family Meropidae. Most species are found in Africa and Asia but others occur in southern Europe, Australia, and New Guinea. They are characterised by richly coloured plumage, slender bodies, and usually elongated central tail feathers...

s, marabou stork

Marabou Stork

The Marabou Stork, Leptoptilos crumeniferus, is a large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It breeds in Africa south of the Sahara, occurring in both wet and arid habitats, often near human habitation, especially waste tips...

, tawny eagle

Tawny Eagle

The Tawny Eagle is a large bird of prey. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. It was once considered to be closely related to the migratory Steppe Eagle, Aquila nipalensis, and the two forms have previously been treated as conspecific...

, bateleur

Bateleur

The Bateleur is a medium-sized eagle in the bird family Accipitridae which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as buzzards, kites and harriers...

, vulturine guineafowl

Vulturine Guineafowl

The Vulturine Guineafowl is the largest extant guineafowl species.Systematically, Acryllium are only distantly related to other guineafowl genera. Their closest living relative, the White Breasted Guineafowl, Agelastes meleagrides inhabit primary forests in Central Africa. bird family,...

, yellow throated spurfowl, lilac-breasted roller

Lilac-breasted Roller

The Lilac-breasted Roller is a member of the roller family of birds. It is widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula, preferring open woodland and savanna; it is largely absent from treeless places...

, palm nut vulture, red-billed hornbill

Red-billed Hornbill

Red-billed Hornbill is a relatively small species of hornbill found in savanna and woodland of sub-Saharan Africa. It is sometimes split into five species, the Northern Red-billed Hornbill , Western Red-billed Hornbill , Tanzania Red-billed Hornbill , Southern Red-billed Hornbill Red-billed...

, secretary bird

Secretary Bird

The Secretarybird or Secretary Bird is a large, mostly terrestrial bird of prey. Endemic to Africa, it is usually found in the open grasslands and savannah of the sub-Sahara...

, Verreaux's eagle

Verreaux's Eagle

Verreaux's Eagle , alternatively known as the Black Eagle , is a large bird of prey. This eagle lives in hilly and mountaineous regions of southern and eastern Africa , and very locally in Western Asia.- Description :It is long. Males weigh and females weigh...

, superb starling

Superb Starling

The Superb Starling is a member of the starling family of birds. It can commonly be found in East Africa, including Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. Used to be known as Spreo superbus .-Description:...

, yellow-billed hornbill

Eastern Yellow-billed Hornbill

The Eastern Yellow-billed Hornbill , formerly Northern Yellow-billed Hornbill, is a species of hornbill in the Bucerotidae family. It is found in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. It resembles the Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill, but has blackish skin around...

 and vultures.

The Ewaso Ng'iro

Ewaso Ng'iro

Ewaso Ng'iro is a river in Kenya which rises on the west side of Mount Kenya and flows north then east and finally south-east, passing through Somalia where it joins the Jubba River....

 river contains large numbers of Nile crocodile

Nile crocodile

The Nile crocodile or Common crocodile is an African crocodile which is common in Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Egypt, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Gabon, South Africa, Malawi, Sudan, Botswana, and Cameroon...

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External links

• World Database on Protected Areas – Samburu National Reserve