Lake Elmenteita Safari Holiday Wildlife Travel Guide

Lake Elmenteita is a soda lake which is most famous for its diverse birdlife and the Flamingos it used to attract; of which both Less and Greater species can still sometimes be seen here. Flamingos are attracted to the lake by the blue-green algae this ecosystem supports, as well as its insect larvae and crustaceans. As many as a million flamingos used to come to Lake Elmenteita to breed, but numbers are low now since the introduction of Lake Madadi tilapia, which attracted a great variety of fish-eating birds, which also prey on flamingo eggs and chicks. Most of Elmenteita's flamingos sought refuge at Natron in Tanzania.

The lake is situated within the Great Rift Valley at an altitude of 1,670 metres (5,480 feet) elevation. It lies within the same basin as Lake Nakuru, which collectively supports 400 species of resident and migratory birds. Whilst flamingos are no longer a mainstay here, its importance as a wetland habitat is recognised in its status as a RAMSAR site.

In addition to birdlife, the lake's shoreline provides grazing land for gazelle, eland, warthogs and zebra.