African White-backed Vultures and Marabou Stork in Amboseli National Park, west of Namanga, Kenya

Amboseli lies immediately North West of Mt. Kilimanjaro, on the border with Tanzania. Amboseli was established as a reserve in 1968 and gazetted as a National Park in 1974. The Park covers 392 km2, and forms part of the much larger 3,000 Km2 Amboseli ecosystem. Large concentrations of wildlife occur here in the dry season. The National Park embodies 5 main wildlife habitats (open plains, acacia woodland, rocky thorn bush country, swamps and marshland) and covers part of a pleistocene lake basin, now dry. Within this basin is a temporary lake, Lake Amboseli, that floods during years of heavy rainfall. Amboseli is famous for its big game and its great scenic beauty - the landscape is dominated by Mt. Kilimanjaro. The White-backed Vulture, Gyps africanus, is an Old World vulture in the family Accipitridae. Sometimes it is called African White-backed Vulture to distinguish it from the Oriental White-backed Vulture. The White-backed Vulture is a typical vulture, with only down feathers on the head and neck, very broad wings and short tail feathers. It has a white neck ruff. The adult's whitish back contrasts with the otherwise dark plumage. This is a medium-sized vulture. Like other vultures it is a scavenger, feeding mostly from carcasses of animals which it finds by soaring over savannah and around human habitation. It often moves in flocks. It breeds in trees on the savannah of west and east Africa, laying one egg. The population is mostly resident. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for Life magazine and traveled to Africa from August 18, 1959 to December 20, 1959.