Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park: Background Info

Boasting one of the highest biodiversity ratings of any reserve in the world, Queen Elizabeth National Park is home to almost a hundred animal species as well as more than 600 types of birds. The park is 1,978 km2 in size, and is famous for its primate species, it’s unusual tree-climbing lions, and the large concentration of hippos. A beautiful combination of forests, grasslands and waterscapes. Queen Elizabeth National Park is the most popular safari destination in Uganda and marries wonderfully with a gorilla or chimp trek.

The park is famous for its big cats, including tree-climbing lions and leopards. Game drives in will reveal the parks range of big game including elephants, buffalos, antelopes and warthogs. Boat safaris take you across the Kazinga Channel that links Lakes Edward and George. Here you'll find buffalo and elephant coming down to the shore, pelicans rafting together in the sunshine, and plenty of hippos. There are over 600 species of recorded birds in Queens, and you can even pair a game drive or boat safari with chimp trekking in the mystical forests of Kyambura Gorge.

Queen Elizabeth National Park: Destination Preview

The Experience: Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park is Uganda’s most popular and visited wildlife conservation area. The park lies in the western part of Uganda in the districts of Kamwenge, Rukingiri, Rubirizi and Kasese. Queen Elizabeth National park currently occupies an area of about 764 square miles. The park borders Uganda’s Kibale National Park and is an extension of Congo’s Virunga National Park. The Kyambura gorge, Maramagambo forest, Kazinga Channel, sections of Lake George and Edward are all part of the park. When it was established in 1952, the park was then known as Kazinga National Park. The visit of the British Queen Elizabeth II in the early 1950’s impressed the government then so much the park was named in her honor.

Queen Elizabeth national park is one of the places that justify the description of Uganda being “the pearl of Africa”. The scenery is stunning with beautiful forests, woodlands, Savanna, swamps, lakes, rivers, craters, gorges and landscape. International visitors to this park will never run short of activities. In fact, they might find themselves struggling to complete all of them. The key attractions are nature walks, games drives, boat cruises, chimpanzee trekking, the tree climbing lions and bird watching.

Wildlife

95 mammal species have been recorded in the park including the waterbuck, warthogs, topi, Uganda Kobs, spotted hyenas, sitatunga, Serval cats, mangoose, leopards, large forest pigs, L’Hoest’s monkeys, Jackal, hippopotamus, genial, elephants, crocodiles, civet, chimpanzee, Buffaloes, black and white colobus monkeys. Queen Elizabeth national park is a lion conservation unit and is home to over 200 lions including the intriguing tree climbing lions. Over 490 species of birds have been sighted in the park.

Tree-climbing lions are a specialty of the Ishasha sector of the park, where they can often be found resting in huge fig trees. Giant forest hog is unusually easy to see, both on drives and boat trips. Buffalo are particularly attractive as they are often reddish brown due to interbreeding with forest buffalo from neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Chimp trekking is available in the steamy, tropical forest of Kyambura Gorge.

Birdlife

Queen Elizabeth National Park has the largest checklist of any protected area in East Africa with more than 600 bird species recorded. This is mostly due to the wide variety of habitats: from savannah to forest to wetland. Many of the birds in the park are regarded as specials within East Africa, which make it a prime birding destination. The swamps in the Ishasha sector are a good place to look for the elusive shoebill stork. Migratory birds are present from November to April.

The full list of the birds in the park can be found at the Bird Observatory in Mweya. Birders on a tour of Queen Elizabeth National Park will be greatly impressed with numerous species inhabiting the forests like Budongo, the Kazinga Channel, the plains, craters and gorges like Kyambura. birding in Queen Elizabeth National ParkDuring certain seasons of the year, millions of migratory birds come to escape the harsh winters in Europe making the park a true birders heaven.