Lake Nakuru

Lake Nakuru is located in Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya and is considered a unique natural spectacle worldwide. The up to four-metre deep, runoff-free lake is one of the alkaline soda lakes in the eastern East African Rift Valley, […]

Lake Nakuru is located in Lake Nakuru National Park in Kenya and is considered a unique natural spectacle worldwide.
The up to four-metre deep, runoff-free lake is one of the alkaline soda lakes in the eastern East African Rift Valley,
is especially world famous for its numerous flamingos. At times up to two million flamingos feed on blue-green algae (Spirulina)
or of small crabs, whereby the actually white animals only get their pink colour.
Even from a distance you can see a pink band that usually runs around the whole lake on the lakeside.
If there is a lack of food, the flamingos move to one of the other soda lakes such as Lake Bogoria or Lake Elmenteita.

Since 2011 the lake is part of the “Kenyan Lake System in the Great Rift Valley” and is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site.
In 1960, two small cichlid species of the genus Alcolapia were released to combat mosquitoes. These perches are edible fish that can survive in an alkaline environment.
The tilapias have multiplied so much that they attract fish eating birds: herons, pelicans and cormorants. The lake is home to about 450 bird species, mainly flamingos and pelicans. In some years up to one million dwarf flamingos have been counted at Lake Nakuru. The surrounding Nakuru National Park has a rich fauna with rhinos, giraffes and antelopes. About 550 plant species grow at the lake.

From August to November 2006, the lake almost dried up due to lack of water inflow, partly caused by commercial mining of sand at the lake’s tributaries. The lake received only one (also threatened) inflow from the Baharini River. Of the flamingos that can no longer breed, the vast majority have already emigrated, preferably to Lake Naivasha and Lake Baringo.