Kenya: Amboseli National Park got extended by 16000 acres

The Amboseli National Park in Kenya is the country's second smallest national park covering an area of only about 398km², but the approx. 1400 elephants in the Amboseli ecosystem usually roam over an area of 5000km² across the Maasai community lands, sometimes conflicting with local people. The elephant’s most favourite route to travel, the journey they have made for millennia, is across the border with Tanzania and onto the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro.



After much discussion and on-going scientific research by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and its partners, the Olguluilui/Ololarashi Group Ranch (OOGR), a local Maasai community, the Kitenden Corridor Conservation Area (KCCA) land owners and the IFAW now signed a lease agreement, which adds about 16,000 acres of land called the "Kitenden Corridor" to the Amboseli National Park. The land covered by the agreement opens up a safe corridor for the elephants to make their way across the border. On the Tanzanian side of the border, a similar corridor already exists.

Kenya: Rare baby albino elephant born in Amboseli National Park (video)

A rare baby albino elephant was born in Kenya's Amboseli National Park earlier in December 2011. The baby elephant has a white tail and body hair, pale skin, and very pink ears. Albino elephants are usually not "white", but instead they have more of a reddish-brown hue, turning a light pink when wet.
Albino elephants are an extremely rare phenomenon in Africa, while in Asia they are thought to be not that unusual. Both the King of Burma and the King of Thailand are keeping small herds of "albino elephants".