Kenya and Tanzania -- Oct 2012 -- Part I of III

Another view of the observation structure for visitors. Wish I had "straightened" this one a bit.

This is a Rothshild Giraffe. It doesn't show up well in any of the photos in this album, but one distinguishing feature of this type of giraffe is they do not have a pattern on their legs from the knees down.

These particular giraffes are not native to the area around Nairobi. My understanding is that their habitat is in the extreme western part of Kenya and in Uganda (even farther west). This place started in the late 1970s as a breeding program in response these giraffes becoming endangered due to civil war and other types of disorders in Uganda (and habitat loss in Kenya due to economic factors). They try to resettle the ones bred here in other national parks in Kenya (some of the parks outside their historic natural habitat).