CULTUREFOCUS: Africa safari photos. Wildlife pictures from Tanzania and Kenya.

East Africa WILDLIFE SAFARI 2
More pictures from safaris across the Serengeti
in Tanzania and Masai Mara in Kenya

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Wildlife Safari 1

Wildlife Safari 2

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Continuing a wildlife safari through the evocative game parks and reserves of Tanzania and Kenya. Some of the Africa of old survives in these precious places and we can still admire the gatherings of animals that were once widespread across the continent.

The plains of the Serengeti in Tanzania and adjoining Masai Mara in Kenya were born of volcanic upheavals in Africa's distant past. Volcanic ash from Rift Valley eruptions covered and smoothed these expanses of land with a nutrient-rich soil. The grasses that now grow on these wide savannas sustain the huge populations of wildebeest, zebra and gazelles.

Baboon family

Hyenas

The African elephant

The immense savannas of east Africa mark the area where the human race is believed to have emerged. The Olduvai Gorge near the Serengeti in Tanzania has yielded the oldest known remains of modern humans. Today, it is the expanding and encroaching human population that is putting increasing pressure on wildlife.

Elephants still roam east Africa, but in far lower numbers than a century ago. Loss of habitat to agriculture, and a greed for ivory from their tusks, have each taken a heavy toll on these intelligent beasts.

Through the 1970s and 1980s, ivory poachers decimated elephants in the Serengeti and other parts of east Africa. This was a dark time for these magnificent animals. After the world-wide ban on the ivory trade in 1989, elephants began returning to some areas and their numbers are now increasing.

African elephants are sociable animals. Herds are usually made up of one or more family groups, although bulls can be more solitary. Elephant herds are headed by a matriarch and have a complex social structure centered on the females and calves.

Flamebirds of Lake Nakuru

Magnificent flamingos congregate in huge numbers at Lake Nakuru in Kenya. The alkaline waters of this Rift Valley lake support the blue-green algae on which they feed. Many thousands of these beautiful birds ring the lake and provide one of the world's supreme wildlife spectacles.

MORE PICTURES FROM THE SERENGETI AND MASAI MARA East Africa: Safari 1

DESTINATIONS
EGYPT Pyramids of Giza          EGYPT Temples of Thebes          EGYPT Valley of the Kings
JORDAN Rose-Red Petra          SYRIA Ruins of Palmyra          CAMBODIA Temples of Angkor
NEPAL Old Kathmandu          NEPAL Everest: Abode of Snow          PERU Machu Picchu
BOTSWANA Okavango Delta Wildlife          NAMIBIA Deserts and Wildlife
EAST AFRICA Wildlife Safari 1          EAST AFRICA Wildlife Safari 2