Lake Nakuru National Park

Wildlife & Animals

Expert

By Anthony Ham

Anthony is the author of the Lonely Planet guide to Kenya.

Most big safari animals are present in Lake Nakuru NP with the exception of elephants. The park is known for its populations of black and white rhino. White rhino is particularly common, and different groups can be encountered throughout the day. Hippo, waterbuck, Burchell's zebra and Thomson's gazelle are common on the floodplains. The park isn’t very good for predators, but leopard and lion are sometimes spotted.

ElephantNone

GiraffeCommon

HippoCommon

BuffaloCommon

ZebraCommon

WildebeestRare

White RhinoCommon

Black RhinoOccasional

LionOccasional

LeopardOccasional

CheetahVery Rare

HyenaOccasional

Wild DogVery Rare

Wildlife Highlights

The park is an important stronghold for the rare Rothschild's giraffe. It was introduced to the park in the 1980s and has now become locally common. Aside from the widespread vervet monkey and olive baboon, the beautiful black-and-white colobus monkey can sometimes be found in the acacia forest. A highlight, if you’re lucky enough, are the tree-climbing lions – Lake Nakuru NP is the best place in Kenya to see them.

Best Time for Wildlife Viewing

Lake Nakuru can be visited throughout the year, but wildlife viewing might be more difficult in April and May, which are the wettest months. At this time, rain might interfere with your game drives and the grass tends to be very high making animal spotting more difficult.