Nairobi National Park

This is the third post on the same theme: new young in NNP. Nothing is as heartening as to observe new forms of life, in whichever ecosystem……

NNP contains one of the largest populations of eland in Kenya.

Young eland show an intense attraction for each other & form nursery herds after the initial lying up period soon after they are born, when they hide. Very rich milk ensures rapid growth & young eland appear to suckle from any lactating female at this stage…

They are very vulnerable now & mortality is high (eg from the feral dog packs at Athi River…..)

Lactating cow on the alert: eland have great sight & hearing & are usually very hard to approach.

As with most sp. in NNP, they have become habituated to vehicles..

Eland used to migrate out of the Park & they still go ‘out’ to the Sheep & Goat Land, but there is too much human activity in the remaining dispersal area & so they now stay in the Park throughout the year. I think one can expect their numbers to go up (count the numbers of calves in these pictures…) as has been the case with Hartebeest, in steep decline elsewhere owing to competition with livestock (lack of habitat.)

Sometimes suckling can be TOO much of a good thing…..

Another  (different) herd in the Eland Hollow valley……this sp. is doing WELL in NNP!