Ethiopia
“Roving bands of hundreds of pinkchested, golden-maned gelada baboons, ferocious-looking but mild-mannered, wail, moan, and cry out to warn of predators in Simen National Park.”
Ethiopia has nine national parks plus more than a dozen other nature set-asides. All were greatly affected by the civil war of the late 1980s and early 1990s that led to overthrow of the Marxist regime. Park infrastructures gradually are being restored with limited funds, hampered by the numbers of people living in the parks, which has led to other problems, including poaching, wood and grass cutting.
Ibex have paid dearly for their long, scimitarlike horns as well as almost every other body part, coveted for beauty and supposed medicinal powers and driving this graceful mountain goat to extinction over much of its range. The Walia or Abyssinian ibex survives almost exclusively in Ethiopia’s SIMEN NATIONAL PARK and World Heritage Site where it can still be seen, posing as befits the country’s national symbol on a rocky crag silhouetted against the sky, its numbers gradually increasing since protection.
Vultures use hooked bills to tear into carcasses which they locate chiefly by sight, soaring high above their territories. These Rüppell’s vultures are world’s highest flying birds—one hit a jet at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,000 m). A seething, squabbling feeding group like this can devour an antelope in 20 minutes. Afterward, gorged, they may have difficulty getting airborne again.
Click on image for description.
Ethiopia
as well as...
Abijatta-Shalla Rift Lakes National Park
Awash National Park
Babile Elephant Sanctuary
Bale Mountains National Park
Gambella National Park
Mago National Park
Omo National Park
Nechisar National Park
Yangudi-Rassa National Park
Blue Nile Falls (Tissisat)
More about the Reserves in Ethiopia
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