Boni National Reserve

Boni National Reserve

Boni National Reserve is a national reserve for conservation and lies in the North Eastern Province of Kenya in the Ijara District.  It was created as a sanctuary for elephants. The reserve covers an area of 1,339 km2. It was gazetted in 1976 as a dry season sanctuary for elephants in Ijara District, Lamu District, and Somalia. The Boni Reserve borders Somalia and is named after the hunting people who range over the land. This wildlife is Buffalo, giraffe, topi, gerenuk, Harvey’s, and Ader’s Duikers are also found here. The Boni forest, after which the reserve is named, is an indigenous open canopy forest and part of the Northern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic. As part of the East African coastal forest, it is likely to hold bird species characteristic of the coastal forests of eastern Africa, possibly including globally threatened species such as Sokoke Pipit. Boni National Reserve is one of the large, remote parks in the northeast of the country, contiguous with the Somali border down to the coast in North-eastern Province.

Uniqueness

• Boni forest national reserve is renowned for its large herds of elephants and other animals not forgetting bird species, the park derives its name from the Boni tribe surrounding the area.
• Some of the trees in the reserve are very rare such as Excoecaria busses, croton megalocarpoides, homallium abdesseamadii, and many more, the reserve is characterized by lowland forests, marshy glades, and ground forests ecosystem.
• The Reserve has confirmed the kind of wildlife species in the reserve like the award, buffalo, bush-pig, bushbuck, caracal, cheetah, common duiker, gerenuk, Grant’s gazelle, hippo, honey badger, black-backed jackal, Kirk’s dik-dik, leopard, lesser kudu, lion, oribi, porcupine, red duiker, spotted hyena, squirrel, topi, vervet monkeys and among more in the reserve.