Unless you're fortunate enough to be put up at Giraffe Manor, this is your best chance to get up close and personal to the pretty-faced Rothschild giraffe, looked after here by the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife. A.F.E.W. is a nonprofit organization founded in 1979 by former Baltimorean model Betty Leslie-Melville and her husband, Jock, in a bid to save the endangered giraffe, which lost its natural habitat in Western Kenya to agriculture. At the time there were only 130 left in the wild; today Kenya's Rothschild population is about 300. Established more as an educational facility concerned with exposing Kenyan schoolchildren to aspects of their rapidly disappearing natural heritage, there's nothing too sophisticated or overly touristy about the center, but you will have the chance to "kiss" a friendly giraffe as it takes a food pellet straight from between your lips. It's a moment you'll never forget, and you'll be happy to know that the slobber that accompanies the 45cm (18 in.) tongue that whips out against your mouth is a natural antiseptic designed to help heal various cuts and wounds sustained while the giraffe browse for tiny leaves among the thorns. The volunteers can also tell you many other interesting facts about the Rothschild, and you could easily learn how to distinguish between these and the other giraffe species just by looking at their patterning or noticing whether or not they have "white socks." Unless you're very interested in plant ecology, skip the dull Nature Sanctuary Forest Trail.