SHIMBA HILLS NATIONAL RESERVE RESTOCKED WITH WILDLIFE - www.kws.org
Kenya Wildlife Service has started restocking Shimba Hills
National Reserve with various wild animals to improve
biodiversity and enhance tourist experience.
The restocking operation funded by the Eden Wildlife Trust to
the tune of Kshs.2, 750,000.00 is one of the many projects the UK
charitable outfit for the conservation of wildlife has funded.
The translocation of wild animals from Tsavo East National Park
over a 150 km distance to one of Kenya’s treasured coastal
rainforests includes 100 impalas, 15 giraffes and 50 kongoni.
The restocking is meant to attract more visitors not just to the
Shimba Hills National Reserve but also to the Mwaluganje
Elephant Community Sanctuary.
The grazing area in Shimba Hills ecosystem has been underutilised
due to a low number of mammals. Many tourists to
Shimba Hills expect to see not only a beautiful coastal rain
forest but also a variety of wildlife but get disappointed by
limited game viewing. The restocking is meant to address this
challenge.
The reserve is the only place in Kenya with the magnificent but
endangered population of the Sable antelope.
Other wild animals found in the park include elephants, colobus
monkeys, the leopard, serval cats and hyenas.
Shimba Hills located 35 km south west of Mombasa via the
Likoni Ferry offers plentiful panoramic picnic and observation
points: Makadara Picnic site, Giriama Point, Ocean View Point,
Pengo Hill Lookout and Elephant Lookout.
The Shimba Hills are cloaked in a mantle of ancient forests, one
of the largest contiguous pieces in East Africa. Over a thousand
species of plants have been recorded, a fourth of them
endemic to the area.
The ecosystems’ close proximity to the coast means it has the
potential to attract large numbers of visitors on short excursions
from the coast to see elephants. The Shimba Hills are regarded
as one of the most diverse forested ecosystems in the Coastal
Region as about 15 percent of the rare plants in Shimba Hills
are coastal endemic and over 50 per cent of the 159 rare plant
species known to occur in Kenya are found in the ecosystem.
The ecosystem is an important water catchment as it provides
fresh water locally and regionally. The Shimba Hills are the
source of three permanent rivers, which include:
Marere/Manolo/Pemba river; Mkurumudzi and Ramisi. Water
from Marere springs in the Shimba Hills reserve is supplied to
Kwale, Mombasa and the south coast of Mombasa. Waterfalls
in the hills serve as key tourist attractions while the forest tends
to moderate temperatures and encourage rainfall locally.
FACT SHEET
AREA: 250 km square
LOCATION: 35 km southwest of Mombasa, off the main south
coast road that leads to the Tanzanian border.
GAZETTEMENT: September 1968
WHEN TO VISIT: All year round, most roads consists of allweather
murram roads
ACCESSIBILITY: The reserve has one airstrip 1.9 km long. Regular
passenger flights land at nearby Ukunda airstrip on Diani beach
or the Moi International Airport in Mombasa.
ABOUT EDEN WILDLIFE TRUST
A UK charitable Trust for conservation of wildlife that also seeks
to improve the needs of the local population they are involved
with. EWF is a long standing
supporter of KWS having independently funded over
Kshs.3,000,000.00 on the species restocking exercise..
For more information.
CONTACTS
Paul Udoto,
Corporate Communications Manager,
Kenya Wildlife Service, P.O Box 40241 00100 Nairobi
Tel +254-20-600800 ext 2122 or 2088
Fax +254-20-603792
Cellphone: +254-721-453981 or +254-733-391126
Telkom wireless: +254-020-243 3000
Email: communications@kws.go.ke OR
kws_cc@yahoo.com
Website: www.kws.go.ke
Kenya Wildlife Service is a State corporation established by an Act of Parliament, CAP 376, with the
mandate to conserve and manage wildlife in Kenya. It has the sole jurisdiction over 26 national parks
and oversight role in the management of 33 national reserves and private wildlife sanctuaries
