Kenya has a total of twenty six National Parks and twenty nine National Reserves. All of them occupy a total area of 44,359 sq. kilometers or 7.5% of the total area of the Republic (582,644 sq kilometers). They range from marine national parks, savanna-bush woodland national parks, mountain national parks, arid and semi-arid national parks, to lake ecosystem national parks/reserves. It is not easy to place Kenya's national parks and reserves in order of merit in their value of attractions. Every park and reserve and park is unique in its diversity of attractions and no park or reserve resembles another. To a visitor, there is no difference between a national park and a national reserve. The difference is official and technically bases on the establishment status due to the title of the land; and has nothing to do with touristic attractions.
The marine parks are famous for their beautiful coral reefs, coral gardens, beaches and lagoons, brightly patterned coral fishes e.g. Angel fish, Parrot fish, Starfish, Sea urchins, lovely porcelain cowries, Green turtles, Octopus, Dudong and big game fish like Blue marlin, Sail fish, Giant fish, Giant grouper and Marko sharks.
The Savanna-bush-woodland National Parks contain some of the greatest plains game concentrations in the world. The big-five: Elephant, Rhinoceros, Buffalo, Lion, and Leopard are manifestly plentiful in these parks. The mountain National Parks boast of some of the most superb mountain scenery in Africa, the snow capped peaks of Mt. Kenya with excellent climbing adventures and beautiful moorlands for mountain walkers.
Giant groundsels and lobelia are some of the eye-catching flora on Mt. Kenya and Mt. Elgon. In addition to the mountain scenery and flora, the mountain parks are homes for the big five (no lions in Mt. Elgon) and a host of other rare mountain species like Bongo, Giant Forest hog, melanistic cats and many mountain bird species.
The lake ecosystem national parks contain the greatest concentration of flamingo in the world (Lake Nakuru National Park) and the greatest crocodile colony in the world (Sibiloi National park). There are also myriads of other bird species in and around the lakes, schools of hippopotamus and hundreds of land mammals species on the shores of the lakes.
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