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.

Tanzania: Google Street View adds Mount Kilimanjaro

Google has added a selection of the world's highest mountains to its Street View interactive library, including Aconcagua (Argentina), Mount Elbrus (Russia), the Everest Base Camp (Nepal) and, of course, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania (Africa). Street View teams climbed all four mountains and took three shots while facing north, three south, three east and three west on each peak using the usual tripod-mounted digital cameras equipped with a fisheye view lens to capture 360-degree views. The pictures taken on top of Mount Kilimanjaro were taken from Uhuru Peak, the mountain's highest summit.


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Mount Kilimanjaro, actually a stratovolcano, is composed of three distinct volcanic cones - Kibo 5,895m, Mawenzi 5,149m and Shira 3,962 m. Uhuru Peak on Kibo's crater rim is the mountain's highest summit. Mawenzi and Shiba are already extinct while Kibo is still dormant and could erupt again. Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and fourth highest of the Seven Summits. It is the tallest freestanding mountain in the world, as well as the 4th most prominent mountain in the world.