Have you been to Flamingo Paradise?

To watch flamingos, you have to go to Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya. Lake Nakuru National Park is located in Nakuru City, Rift Valley Province, covering an area of ??188 square kilometers. It is a park specially established to protect birds. It is about 200 kilometers away from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. You can drive there from Nairobi and you can go back and forth on the same day. Of course, if you want to enjoy it to the fullest, it is best to stay in a hotel near the park for one night.

According to statistics, there are about 450 species of birds in Lake Nakuru National Park, among which flamingos are especially famous. There are about 2 million flamingos inhabiting there all year round, accounting for one-third of the global total. Such a high concentration of the same population in one place is extremely rare among animals around the world.

Flamingos are not migratory birds but resident birds and will only migrate when there is a lack of food and changes in the environment. The environment of Lake Nakuru is very suitable for flamingos, and there is no shortage of food all year round, so migration rarely occurs.

Lake Nakuru and several small lakes nearby were formed by changes in the earth's crust. There is a large amount of live water injected into it, but there is no outlet. The lava soil brought by the water flow is deposited on the bottom of the lake, and the salt is dissolved in the water, providing good conditions for the growth of algae. A dark green algae grows abundantly in the shallow waters of several lakes, which is the main food for flamingos to survive.

There are two types of flamingos in Lake Nakuru National Park: large and small. They all have long legs, long necks, and huge beaks, much like white cranes, but their feathers are light red, and their wings and feet are slightly darker. There are often tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of flamingos gathered together in dense crowds, wandering in the shallows. When the mood strikes, they lightly spread their wings and huff and puff away, and the lake light and the shadows of the birds complement each other.

Due to the mild climate and luxuriant water and grass, the national park is also home to millions of other species of birds and other types of wild animals, such as otters, rock cats, hippos, leopards, lions, etc. However, birdwatchers must be cautious. I heard from locals that when Lake Nakuru was first opened, lions attacked tourists, causing the number of tourists in the national park to drop for a while.

When visiting Lake Nakuru National Park, there is another animal that cannot be ignored, and that is the wild white rhinoceros. In Kenya, the white rhinoceros is a symbol of good luck. It is a blessing to meet one. Unfortunately, rhinos are very alert and have bad tempers. If a caravan of tourists gets too close, they can easily be angered. They will use the horns as fronts to rush towards cars. Even rough-skinned off-road vehicles can only run away.

Precisely because of the many beautiful animals such as flamingos, Kenya has always been a paradise for animal lovers, photography enthusiasts and "travel enthusiasts", and the local tourism industry has also boomed. Kenya’s tourism revenue was 163 billion Kenyan shillings, approximately US$1.36 billion, a year-on-year increase of 3.8%; the tourism industry accounts for nearly one-tenth of GDP.

However, not many Chinese tourists visit Kenya. Let’s take last year’s data as an example. That year, Kenya received 2.048 million foreign tourists and less than 100,000 Chinese tourists. Because of this, the local area has great expectations for the explosive growth in the number of Chinese tourists. According to local media reports, the President of Kenya hopes that the number of Chinese tourists visiting each year will reach 0.1% of the Chinese population, or 1.4 million people. Reaching this figure may not be an extravagant hope.

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