The Rothschild's giraffe is readily distinguished from the other types of giraffe by its white socks and underbelly. Less obvious is its five horns. Most giraffe have three horns. The two prominent ones are supplemented by a smaller one, central, immediately in front of them.
The Rothschild's has two more, small ones immediately behind the two main horns. They can be seen in the picture opposite and are very plain in the bottom right picture.
Another feature of the Rothschild's giraffe is its geographical distribution. They are mainly northern and won't be seen in Amboseli, Masai Mara or Tsavo. In those more southern game parks and reserves you will find mostly Masai and Reticulated giraffe.
The Rothschild's giraffe here were photographed at Lake Nakuru and Sweetwater. Whilst the scenery is probably more picturesque at Lake Nakuru, Sweetwater is much more open.
This means better chances of getting clear photographs at Sweetwater, but Lake Nakuru, being more "jungle like" provides some spectacular backgrounds for those photographic opportunities that do present themselves.
Undoubtedly the places I would recommend for photographic safaris are Amboseli, Masai Mara and Sweetwater, because of the open ground and the range of animals available there.
But Lake Nakuru is still a good place to be if you are patient. It took us three days to track down the lions and we never did get any good clear photographs of Colobus monkeys which were supposedly plentiful at Lake Nakuru. On the positive side we did get our most aesthetically pleasing shots at Lake Nakuru.
