Visiting Nairobi's Giraffe Centre /

2 min read

About Kenya's infamous Giraffe Center and what it offers to any traveler out to enjoy an excursion in the "City Under the Sun".

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The Giraffe Centre is a must-see when visiting Nairobi if you've ever fantasized about getting up close and personal with wild animals.
You would need to drive for roughly 40 minutes to get to the location, which is 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) from the city center and borders the Nairobi National Park and the Karen residential area on one side.

The Rothschild giraffe, a subspecies of the giraffe that can only be found in the grasslands of East Africa, was in a sad state of decline when the center's founders, Jock and Betty Leslie, learned of it.

Many thousands of Kenyan schoolchildren are taught about conservation practices at the Giraffe Center, which has gained international recognition as a center for nature education.

The Giraffe Centre, as its name implies, offers you the chance to come up close to the critically endangered Rothschild's giraffes, feed them from your hands, and even play with them a little if you consider a kiss or lick from one of them to be playing. Some of them will even let you pet or touch them if you want to.

Three giraffe subspecies, including the Maasai, Reticulated, and Rothschild, can be found in Kenya. The Rothschild family resides at this Center.
When you enter, you will see a wooden structure that has been built so that you are at animal level. Food pellets will be provided to you, which you can give to the giraffes by hand or mouth. They are always eager and happy to accept the pellets. Just to be in the vicinity of so many of them at once is astounding since they are all standing at incredible heights.

Enjoy the opportunity while you're there because I don't know if there is another location like it in Africa or even the entire world.

You also have an opportunity to ask the highly knowledgeable staff questions about the giraffes or the Institute.

In the same area, you could see warthogs frolicking in the mud.

The Center also features a main store with curios and a smaller Maasai store where wonderful gifts can be purchased to take home.