FAST FACTS

• The Maasai are Nilots, originating n the lower Nile Valley and moving south to the Great Rift Valley, where they settled. They named Nairobi (meaning ‘place of cool water’).

• The word ‘safari’ is a Maasai word for ‘journey’.

• When lions are young they have spots, which fade as they become adults.

• Acacia trees have several layers of defence against giraffes or other browsing animals – huge spikes, a tannin gas that makes the leaves taste terrible for 24 hours, another gas that warns neighbouring trees to release their tannin, and pods that house biting ants.

• Just like people are left or right handed, elephants are left or right tusked – the shorter tusk is their dominant one.