Tsavo East National Park is a national park in Kenya with an area of . It was established in April 1948 and covers a semi-arid area previously known as the Taru Desert. Together with the Tsavo West National Park, it forms an area of about 22,000 square kilometers. The Tsavo River flows west to east through the national park, which is located in the Taita-Taveta County of the former Coast Province.

Geography

Tsavo East National Park is generally flat, with dry plains across which the Galana River flows. Other features include the Yatta Plateau and Lugard Falls.
Inside Tsavo East National Park, the Athi and Tsavo rivers converge to form the Athi-Galana-Sabaki River. Most of the park consists of semi-arid grasslands and savanna.

The Yatta Plateau, the world's longest lava flow, runs along the western boundary of the park above the Athi-Galana-Sabaki River. Its  length was formed by lava from Ol Donyo Sabuk Mountain.
The Mudanda Rock is a  inselberg of stratified rock that acts as a water catchment that supplies a natural dam below. It offers an excellent vantage point for the hundreds of elephants and other wildlife that come to drink during the dry season.
Lugard Falls, named after Frederick Lugard, is a series of white water rapids on the Athi-Galana-Sabaki River.
Aruba Dam was built in 1952 across the Voi River. The reservoir created by the dam attracts many animals and water birds.

Tsavo West National Park is more mountainous and wetter, with swamps, Lake Jipe and the Mzima Springs. It is known for birdlife and for its large mammals. It is also home to a black rhino sanctuary.

Archaeology and history
Although a few Early Stone Age and Middle Stone Age archaeological sites are recorded from ground surface finds in Tsavo, there is much evidence for thriving Late Stone Age economy from 6,000 to 1,300 years ago. Research has shown that Late Stone Age archaeological sites are found close to the Galana River in high numbers. The inhabitants of these sites hunted wild animals, fished and kept domesticated animals. Because of the sparse availability of water away from the Galana River, human settlement in Tsavo focused on the riparian areas and in rock shelters as one moves west.

Swahili people traded with the inhabitants of Tsavo for ivory, catskins, and probably slaves as early as 700 AD (and probably earlier). There is no evidence for direct Swahili "colonization" of Tsavo. Instead, trade was probably accomplished by moving goods to and from the Swahili Coast via extended kin-networks. Trade goods such as cowry shells and beads have been recovered from archaeological sites dating to the early Swahili period.

19th century British and German explorers document people we now refer to as Orma and Watha during their travels through the "nyika" ("bush" or "hinterland") and generally viewed them as hostile toward their interests. Beginning in the late 19th/early 20th century, the British began a concerted effort to colonise the interior of Kenya and built a railway through Tsavo in 1898. Two Tsavo Man-Eaters terrorised the construction crews led by John Henry Patterson who eventually shot the pair not before they had killed one hundred and thirty five Indians and local workers. The railway was eventually completed through to Kisumu on Lake Victoria.

Tsavo remained the homeland for Orma pastoralists and Watha hunter-gatherers until 1948, when it was gazetted a national park. At that time, the Orma with their livestock were driven off and the aboriginal population of the Watha people was forcefully relocated to Voi and Mtito Andei as well as other locations within the nearby Taita Hills. Following Kenyan independence in 1963, hunting was banned in the park and management of Tsavo was turned over to the authority that eventually became the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Wildlife 

Tsavo East National Park is considered one of the world's biodiversity strongholds, providing undeveloped homes to vast numbers of animals.

Mammals
Famous are the Tsavo lions, a population whose adult males often lack manes entirely. As of 2006, there were about 675 lions in the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem.

Some of the many mammals found in the park include:
 Aardwolf
 Yellow baboon
 African buffalo
 Senegal bushbaby
 Bushbuck
 Caracal
 African wildcat
 Southeast African cheetah
 African civet
 Kirk's dik-dik
 African wild dog
 African dormouse
 Blue duiker
 Bush duiker
 Harvey's red duiker
 Common eland
 African bush elephant
 Bat-eared fox
 Northern greater galago
 Grant's gazelle
 Rusty-spotted genet
 Common genet
 Gerenuk 
 Giraffe
 African savanna hare
 Springhare
 Coke's hartebeest
 Hunter's hartebeest
 East African hedgehog
 Spotted hyena
 Striped hyena
 Yellow-spotted rock hyrax
 Southern tree hyrax
 Impala
 Black-backed jackal
 Side-striped jackal
 Klipspringer
 Lesser kudu
 African leopard
 Lion
 Banded mongoose
 Dwarf mongoose
 Egyptian mongoose
 Marsh mongoose
 Slender mongoose
 White-tailed mongoose
 Vervet monkey
 Sykes' monkey
 Fringe-eared oryx
 Clawless otter
 Ground pangolin
 Crested porcupine
 Cane rat
 Giant rat
 Naked mole rat
 Honey badger
 Bohor reedbuck
 Black rhinoceros
 Serval
 Elephant shrew
 Bush squirrel
 Red bush squirrel
 Striped ground squirrel
 Unstriped ground squirrel
 Suni
 Common warthog
 waterbuck
 Plains zebra
 Grevy's zebra

Birds
Over 500 bird species have been recorded in the area, including ostriches, kestrels, buzzards, starlings, weaver birds, kingfishers, hornbills, secretary birds and herons.

Threats
Between 2001 and 2006, more than 100 lions, elephants and other wildlife have been killed in the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem. Most of them have been speared by young men. The poachers usually do not face serious consequences. In contrast, the game scouts who arrested offenders have been punished by the community.

References 

 Kusimba, Chapurukha M.; Kusimba, Sibel B.; Wright, David K. (2005) The development and collapse of precolonial ethnic mosaics in Tsavo, Kenya. Journal of African Archaeology 3(2):345–365. JAfrArch
 Thorbahn, P. F., (1979) The Precolonial Ivory Trade of East Africa: Reconstruction of a Human-Elephant Ecosystem. Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
 Wijngaarden, W. v., and V. W. P. v. Engelen (1985) Soils and Vegetation of the Tsavo Area. Geological Survey of Kenya, Nairobi.
 Wright, David K. (2005) Environment, Chronology and Resource Exploitation of the Pastoral Neolithic in Tsavo, Kenya. PhD Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago. Wright Diss
 Wright, David K. (2005) New perspectives on early regional interaction networks in East Africa: A view from Tsavo National Park, Kenya. African Archaeological Review 15(3):111–141. AAR
 Wright, David K. (2007) Tethered mobility and riparian resource exploitation among Neolithic hunters and herders in the Galana River Basin, Kenyan Coastal Lowlands. Environmental Archaeology 12(1):25–47. Env. Archaeology
 Wright, David K.; Forman, Steven L.; Kusimba, Chapurukha M.; Pierson, James; Gomez, Jeanette; Tattersfield, Peter (2007) Stratigraphic and geochronological context of human habitation along the Galana River, Kenya. Geoarchaeology 22(7):709–730. Geoarch
 Patterson, John Henry. (1907) Man-Eaters of Tsavo. P 41 – 114.

External links

  World Database on Protected Areas: Tsavo East National Park

National parks of Kenya
Athi-Galana-Sabaki River
Protected areas established in 1948
Tsavo National Park
Northern Acacia-Commiphora bushlands and thickets