I visited Lumo Conservancy on 4th of September 2022. Lumo was grey due to lack of rains. I have been visiting Lumo regularly for five years.
Lumo has abundant wildlife, with lots of zebras, impalas, giraffes, elephants, hardebeest and buffalos.
Droughts are part of life in East Africa, and have been even before humans began to change the land.
However problem is now more severe as dense human population is using the water from the rivers that used to flow also to the animals.
When elephants are hungry and thirsty, they push down trees. You can read more about this from this post. Elephants are pushing down trees of savanna
Many of the grazers are partly browsers, meaning that they shift to eating leaves during dry season, these are e.g. impalas and zebras.
When there are less trees, there is less food. Especially green food during drought. You can see from this gallery of images how little trees and green there is in Lumo during drought.
However, I didn’t see any animals dying of hunger or thirst.
But animals are dependent on water holes kept by people. One is in Salt Lick Safari Hotel and one is at the camp of Mwalua Trust
Lumo conservancy is community owned conservation area. One important source of income is volunteers https://lumoconservancy.com/volunteer/
Lumo has shared border with Tsavo West.
Taita Sanctuary is just beside Lumo, and you can drive freely in Taita Sanctuary and Lumo.
Taita Hills Safari Resort Hotel is good place to stay or just to have lunch https://taitahillssafariresort.com/
All though I recommend driving in to the conservancy from LUMO gate, as then money will go to LUMO and surrounding community.
Related posts:
Animals of Taita, Kenya 