Kenya ranked world's best destination for wildlife photography

A new study has identified Kenya as the best destination for wildlife spotting and photography globally.

In the ranking released by South Africa-based travel firm Go2Africa, Canada, Singapore, Australia, and Botswana secured the second, third, fourth, and fifth positions respectively.

"To conduct the study, Go2Africa first pulled a seed list of all the countries, U.S. states and popular national parks around the world. We then analyzed almost 70 million images on the photo-sharing website Flickr by searching for each location and the keyword ‘wildlife’," the Go2Africa website reads in part.

"Using this data, we then calculated the number of wildlife photos as a percentage of all photos of the location to determine where people visited to photograph animals."

The study found that Kenya led the pack, with 20.69% of the analyzed and tagged photos labelled 'wildlife' originating from Nairobi.

"Kenya has many expansive parks and landscapes that are home to its diverse population of wildlife. The Maasai Mara is the country’s most popular reserve and holds one of Africa’s richest concentrations of wildlife," Go2Africa stated.

"At the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, Amboseli is renowned for its large herds of free-ranging African elephants and its majestic backdrop which makes photography in the region especially breathtaking. Samburu National Reserve is famous for its abundance of unique species such as the Grevy Zebra– the largest of the three zebra species."

Following closely behind were Canada, Singapore, Australia, and Botswana, accounting for 20.42%, 19.19%, 17.43%, and 16.53% of the captured photos, respectively.

Tanzania claimed the sixth position with 15.98%, trailed by Lithuania (15.68%), Namibia (14.32%), India (13.27%), and South Africa (12.16%), closing out the top ten spots on the list.

According to the study, Kruger National Park in South Africa was ranked as the top national park for wildlife spotting with nearly half of the park's photographs (42.54%) capturing its remarkable wildlife, totalling over 40,965 unique images.

Maasai Mara National Reserve secured the second position with 33.53% of its park photos showcasing wildlife, followed by Tanzania's Serengeti National Park in third place with 23.37% of its images highlighting the park's distinct wildlife.

"The Serengeti, along with the Maasai Mara, are both renowned for The Great Wildebeest Migration which sees more than 2 million animals traverse through both national parks throughout the year," Go2Africa noted.