Lake Elementeita

Lake Elementeita, located off the Nairobi-Nakuru highway, is a popular Kenya Safari destination among birding enthusiast sand is situated in the eastern side of the Great Rift Valley about 40 km from the town of Nakuru, the 18km-square soda lake hosts hundreds of thousands of enthralling flamingos, pelicans, crested grebe and many other birds that dot the waters.

Lord Delamere (1879-1931) established his Soysambu ranch a 48,000-acre (190 km2), on the western side of the lake. The Soysambu ranch is still occupied by Lord Delamere's descendants, Thomas P. G. Cholmondeley who has established the Soysambu conservancy. The conservancy covers two thirds of shoreline of this lake and is home to over 12000 wild animals.

Over 400 bird species have been recorded in the Lake Nakuru/Lake Elementeita basin. The Elementeita attracts visiting the Greater and Lesser flamingoes that feed on the lake's crustacean and insect larvae and suspended blue-green algae. Tilapia was introduced in the lake from Lake Magadi in 1962 and since that time the flamingo population has become less. The tilapia attracts many fish-eating birds that feed on flamingo eggs and chicks. Over a million birds that previously bred at Lake Elementeita have migrated to at Lake Natron in Tanzania to seek refuge.

Lake Elementeita is a shallow lake with the depth being less than 1 metre in some instances and is bordered by encrusted mudflats during the dry seasons. Zebra, gazelle, eland and warthog graze on the shores of the lake.

Ramsar Site
Lake Elementeita has been a Ramsar site in 2005. Ramsar site is an intergovernmental treaty which provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.