Lake Bogoria

Lake Bogoria National Reserve was established in 1970 in the Kenyan Rift Valley, north of Lake Baringo, and protects some 107 km² around a shallow alkaline lake set at the foot of the Siracho escarpment.

Its waters are strongly alkaline and saline, and in them thrives the cyanobacterium Arthrospira, the food of the lesser flamingo. That makes Bogoria one of the places in the world where the species gathers in greatest numbers: in favourable periods more than a million birds have been counted along its shores, one of the most impressive ornithological spectacles in Africa. The populations fluctuate greatly with salinity and food availability, and the flamingos move between the various alkaline lakes of the Rift.

The western shore is lined with geysers and hot springs that emit boiling water and steam, an expression of the geothermal activity associated with the rift. The reserve also holds a population of greater kudu and arid scrub fauna. The lake forms part of the World Heritage property Kenya Lake System in the Great Rift Valley, inscribed in 2011 alongside Lakes Nakuru and Elementaita, and is a Ramsar site.