Region
Kenya Live Cameras — 6 official webcams
Six cameras from explore.org: four on the waterhole and river at Mpala Research Centre, two on the Mara River crossings in the Maasai Mara. Kenya runs six hours behind Japan, which puts local dawn at Japanese lunchtime.
What you can see
All six are explore.org live streams, in two places. Both are places where animals come down to water, and what is unusual is how many of the cameras look at the same water from different angles.
Four at Mpala Research Centre, a research station on the highlands of Laikipia in central Kenya, covering one waterhole and river with four framings. The Mpala waterhole is the central one — elephant, hippo, giraffe, Grevy's zebra, gazelle, crocodile and leopard come to drink or to lie in the water. The Mpala lookout pulls back on the same water and river; the acacias along the bank hold vervet monkeys, olive baboons and a great many birds, so the branches are as much the point as the ground. The Mpala river camera sits upstream of the waterhole and catches the animal paths on both banks at once. The Mpala beach camera looks down on the widest shore of the waterhole, where hippo, hyena, lion and leopard come in.
Two in the Mara Triangle, on the western side of the Maasai Mara, at the points where the migration crosses the Mara River. The main crossing is exactly that — and out of season it still shows the animals and crocodiles that use the river. The fig tree crossing is near the Tanzanian border, a common entry point for herds coming into the Mara: over 1.2 million wildebeest, joined by Burchell's zebra, Thomson's gazelle and eland, forming up into columns.
The provider does not permit reproduction of its images, so this site carries no sample image for any of these six.
6 cameras in Kenya
All 6 are live video. Tap one to open it in the camera list.
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Live video
The Mpala waterhole
Laikipia · Wildlife · Nature
The waterhole at Mpala Research Centre in the highlands of central Kenya. Elephants, hippos, giraffes, Grevy's zebras, gazelles, crocodiles and leopards come to drink, or to get in.
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Live video
Mpala lookout
Laikipia · Wildlife · Nature
The same waterhole and river from further back. The acacias along the bank hold vervet monkeys, olive baboons and a great many birds, so the branches are worth watching as much as the ground.
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Live video
The Mpala river
Laikipia · River · Wildlife
Set upstream of the waterhole, with the wildlife corridors on both banks in frame at once. Elephants, giraffes and kudus make their way down. The operator recommends between 06:00 and 07:00 local time for the sunrise.
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Live video
Mpala basking beach
Laikipia · Wildlife · Nature
Looking down on the widest beach of the waterhole. Hippos, hyenas, lions, leopards, giraffes, kudus and elephants all come. Most animals are about at local dawn and dusk.
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Live video
Mara River main crossing
Mara Triangle · River · Wildlife
The main point at which the migrating herds cross the Mara River, in the Mara Triangle in the west of the Masai Mara. Outside the crossing season the animals that come to the river, and the crocodiles, are still there.
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Live video
Fig Tree crossing on the Mara
Mara Triangle · River · Wildlife
The Fig Tree crossing point, near the Tanzanian border. This is one of the favoured entrances for herds moving into the Mara, where more than 1.2 million wildebeest, joined by Burchell's zebra, Thomson's gazelle and eland, form a continuous line.
When to watch
Six hours behind Japan, and no daylight saving. 12:00 in Japan is 06:00 in Kenya, which means the local daylight hours run from the Japanese afternoon into the small hours. Open these in the Japanese morning and it is still night there.
Animals are most numerous at local dawn and dusk. The provider recommends the sunrise between 06:00 and 07:00 local for the Mpala river camera, which is 12:00 to 13:00 Japan time — a camera whose best hour lands squarely in your lunch break. Local dusk falls around midnight in Japan.
Kenya sits almost on the equator, so sunrise and sunset barely move across the year. It is one of the few places on this site where you can stop thinking about the season changing the daylight.
The two Mara cameras are known for the migration, but the provider gives no seasonal guidance for them, so neither does this site. Even with no herds crossing, the animals and crocodiles that come to the river are there.
Agencies publishing the cameras on this page
- explore.org (Deep links and embeds OK, no image reuse) — Official site
The footage belongs to each agency. This site is an unofficial guide, and each sample frame was copied once per camera under that agency's terms of use.