Tsavo National Park

(Kenya)

Tsavo National Park

Overview

This vast savanna National Park lies in low, semi-arid land at the eastern edge of the inland plateau, north of the main Mombasa-Nairobi road and railway. Tsavo National Park was originally established in 1948, and in 1949 it was gazette as a National Park and separated into Tsavo West and Tsavo East for administrative purposes. Much of the Tsavo Park is level, open grassland, with scattered rocky outcrops.

Tsavo West has a more varied topography and a more diverse array of habitats than its neighbour. Most of the northern sector is Acacia-Commiphora bushland, with scattered trees such as Baobabs (Adansonia digitata) and Delonix elata. There are numerous rocky outcrops and ridges, and, towards the Chyulu Hills, ash cones and lava flows. At Mzima Springs, in the north of the Park, water that has filtered underground from the Chyulu Hills gushes into a series of clear pools, with large number of fish and crocodile.

The Tsavo east is popular for its scenic features, that includes the Mudanda rocks, Lugard Falls, the Yatta plateau (about 290Km long and one of the world’s longest lava flows), Aruba dam (built in 1952 across the Voi river and attracts many animals and water birds), Tsavo and Athi rivers confluence to form the Galana river, the Mzima Springs in Tsavo West with clear water with large number of fish and crocodile, high wildlife population and the popular legend of Tsavo “The Man-Eaters of Tsavo”. The name ‘Man Eaters of Tsavo’ came about when; way back In March 1898 the British were building a railway bridge over the Tsavo River. Over the next nine months, two large male lions killed and ate nearly 140 railway workers.