THE HYRAX HILL MUSEUM

Located about 4 kilometers from Nakuru Town is the Hyrax hill museum. It’s name was inspired by the high number of hyraxes that were found at the hill. At the top of the hill you can see Lake Nakuru.
The late Mrs A. Selfe was the owner of the property and she made discoveries of the relics.
This was also followed by subsequent archeological excavations carried out by Dr Mary Leakey revealing substantial findings in different parts of the site.
She discovered different levels of occupation for example site 1 which was evidence of late stone age and late iron age.

There is a gallery at the museum. It’s divided three chambers: the west chamber which displays ethnographic materials the central chamber which captures the archeology of the site and the east chamber captures natural history objects.

There are tortoises at the museum. The youngest at the time I was there was 31 years old while the oldest was 86years old. The young tortoises have a darker shell compared to the older ones. To differentiate between the male and female tortoises, look at their hind feet. Female tortoises have sharper nails which they use to dig the ground once they hatch. They hatch 15 to 30 eggs in one sitting and burry the eggs in the ground. Laying of the eggs, digging of the ground and burrying the eggs takes a whole day. They hatch thrice a year. They have a gestation period of 8 to 15 months.
If you turn tortoises upside down, you will notice that a male one has a depression along it’s lower part of the body while female doesn’t. The depression aids in mating.
Their defense mechanism include hiding its head inside the shell, they produce a hissing sound and they could urinate on you, the urine is said to be itchy.
Tortoises get sick and are also infested with pests. Treatment is done by KWS officers.
A tortoise’s egg can be eaten boiled or fry and it’s meat is white but is mostly cooked and served in five star hotels.
I’m yearning to have a taste because I love white meat so much.