Parks & reserves: Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve
Wildlife
The stars of the park are two rare and small mammals, shy and difficult to spot. The Ader's duiker ('Cephalophus adersi'), also known as Zanzibar's duiker since in this island it was first described, is a tiny antelope only 35 cm high, partly nocturnal, which hides in the forest and lives in couples. The yellow- or golden-rumped elephant shrew ('Rhynchocyon chrysopygus'), 0.5 m long and hardly half of it belonging to the tail, leads a solitary existence and it is of diurnal habits. Both mammals are a bit more easily found around Gedi, where tourists are fewer. A third mammal, the extremely rare Sokoke bush-tailed mongoose, was last spotted in the mid 1980's.
The park also hosts a rich endemic bird diversity. Amongst them, six species are exclusive to Arabuko Sokoke: the Sokoke pipit, Sokoke scops owl, Clark's weaver, spotted ground thrush, East Coast akalat and Amanu sunbird. Finally, the park is home to several species of butterflies, five of which are only found in this forest.
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