Watching elephant herds and the spectacular views of Mount Kilimanjaro is the reason thousands of tourists visit the Amboseli National Park. The Amboseli National Park is 392 square kilometers in size of dramatically arid to semi arid sorroundings and is also the heartland of the Masai nomadic community. During the mostly dry seasons, the Amboseli National Park Vegetation is scarce and sometimes rare making spotting game easier than in the Masai Mara Game reserve.

Walking the Amboseli National Park guarantees close encounters with numerous species of birds, large herds of wildebeests and zebra, elephant families, buffalos, giraffes, antelopes and baboons. The park also also holds numerous waterbirds among them flamingos. You will definately see lions, leopards, and cheetahs in the dense natural patches of thick cover. you could also catch a glimpse of the rare black rhino every now and then.

The Amboseli National Park is not short of places to stay eat and while away your evenings, as you enjoy the sundowner and share your travel experiences with fellow travellers. There are numerous camp sites and lodges and you have a choice of either staying in budget or even luxurious accommondation. The choice is dependent on you and your pocket. One has a choice to stay at the Amboseli Lodge, set amidst lush tropical ponds, a cool oasis in these dramatically arid sorroundings. The Oltukai Lodge also offers wonderful sceneries of Mount Kilimanjaro on the southern end of the Amboseli National Park. For those really travelling on a budget one should consider the public campsite near the Tortilis camp.

Getting to the Amboseli National Park from Nairobi can be arranged with a tour company of your choice, its a four hour drive from Nairobi through Namanga to the Amboseli in a custom made 4 wheel drive tour van. The road to Namanga is well kept although when you enter the Amboseli National Park, the roads are dilapidated and is in much need of repair.

Before leaving the Amboseli National Park, it would be prudent for you to visit the numerous private wildlife sanctuaries scattered around the park, and starategically situated on higher grounds giving splendid views of Mount Kilimanjaro and watering holes where you can watch as wild animals drink water and enjoy the salt licks so close to you than you may have ever thought possible, providing an ideal ambience to reflect on the splendour of natures creation.

If you are looking for a romantic retreat, bringing the family on vacation, or traveling alone, Amboseli National Park adventure awaits you as one of kenya’s many wildife parks and sanctuaries.

An Asian Elephant named Ashya knows that three plus four is more than one plus five. Naoko Irie, a researcher at the University of Tokyo presented the findings of a recent elephant study at the International Society for Behavioral Ecology’s annual meeting in Ithaca, New York.

As reported by NewScientist.com news service, the elephant knew that when four apples were added to a bucket with three apples, it held more fruit than a bucket in which five apples were added to one apple.

It was no coincidence. On average, elephants chose the bucket with the most fruit 74 per cent of the time.

Previous research has shown that several animals have the ability to count. In addition, with little coaching, parrots for instance are known to come up with the right solution to mathematical problems.

Elephants have rather big brains. Irie suspects that this trait, together with their “evolutionary kinship to other ‘smart’ animals” may account for their skill in mathematics.

Natural history museums and science magazines usually present chimpanzees as being cleverer than all other animals. This is due to evolutionary assumptions of humans and apes being closely related. In 1969 Science reported on a female chimpanzee named Washoe who understood over a hundred sign language “words”.

This began a boom that had the intention of proving that humans did not have a monopoly on language. In the late 1970s a chimpanzee who was named Nim Chimpsky learnt 125 signs. The name was an obvious parody of linguist Noam Chomsky, who thought that there was an enormous gap between the linguistic abilities of man and apes.

Apes were unable to learn much more words. However, a parrot known as Alex, who died in 2007, was able to use over 150 words. This was a big surprise for evolutionists. A bird with a small brain should not have beaten apes in language skills. Moreover, recent research indicates that magpies are able to recognise themselves in a mirror.

Elephants are known to be intelligent animals who have excellent memories and even mourn the dead. Now, together with the parrot Alex and magpies they are also calling into question the neo-Darwinian teaching of apes being special.