Giraffe Centre

Getting up close and personal with giraffes is an incredible experience that local and visiting children get to do every day at Nairobi’s Giraffe Centre. Founded in 1979 by Betty and Jock Leslie-Melville, founders of Giraffe Manor, who played a fundamental role in saving the endangered Rothschild giraffe, the center is now a model of wildlife education. There’s a nature trail through the giraffe sanctuary (guided tours available) and small learning center but the main attraction is the deck from which you can feed the long-necked beauties. Handfuls of kibble can be tossed to the creatures, fondly referred to as wildlife’s super-models, and you can see why when they bat their long lashes. The centre adjoins Giraffe Manor, a hotel that is the former home of the Leslie-Melvilles, who brought two young giraffes from western Kenya when there were fewer than 120 left in the wild. Descendants of those original giraffes still roam the sanctuary and hundreds more have been safely released back to different reserves in the country. In 2000, a program was launched to bring local children from schools in the slums to the centre on ecology trips for their first introduction to wildlife.