Uganda National Game Parks

All you need to know about all national parks in Uganda

As yet untouched by mass tourism, Uganda National Game Parks and reserves are ideal retreats for the discerning eco-tourist.

The experience is very different to that in some of the parks in South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania.

Here there are no tarmac roads through the parks, no mass convergence of zebra-camouflaged safari trucks and no animals turning up by appointment! The experience takes you back to basics where patience and good game tracking skills are key.

The distinctive attraction of Uganda as a tourist destination arises out of the variety of its game stock and its unspoiled scenic beauty. Within a relatively limited space of just over 250,000 square kilometres, Uganda offers an interesting contrast ranging from the wide East African plains and expansive savannah grasslands to the impenetrable, mountain rain forests and snow peaked mountains in the south western parts of the country.

Uganda offers a wide range of bird species and wild range in addition to numerous opportunities for mountain climbing and water sports such as a white water rafting.Uganda generally has substantial natural resources for tourism with a variety of landscape and ecosystems, climates and cultures. Some of its features are outstanding by international standards such as the sheer variety of bird species, while others are unique. Uganda's eco-systems and cultural diversity are unaltered and unspoilt by modern commercial influences. Numbers of visitors are small and therefore the Ugandan experience has novelty and rarity values not easily found elsewhere in Africa.

The following are some of the best National Parks in Uganda

Bwindi Impenetrable National Parks

A magnificent verdant swathe across the steep ridges of the Albertine Rift Valley, this ancient rainforest - one of the few in Africa to have flourished throughout the last Ice Age - is home to roughly half of the world's mountain gorillas. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park

Katonga Wildlife Reserve

Only recently developed for tourism, the reserve protects a network of forest-fringed wetlands along the Katonga River. Best explored on foot and by canoe, Katonga supports some 40 mammal and at least 150 bird species, many specific to wetland habitats. River Katonga Game Reserve

Kibale Forest National Park

The most accessible of Uganda's major rainforests, Kibale is home to a remarkable 13 primate species, including the very localised red colobus and L'Hoest's monkey. Kibale's major attraction, however, is the opportunity to track habituated chimps - these delightful apes, more closely related to humans than to any other living creature, are tremendous fun to watch as they squabble and play in fruiting trees. Kibale Forest National Park

Kidepo Valley National Park

The Kidepo Valley National Park is one of Uganda's most spectacular parks. It is 1,442 square kilometres and harbours scenery unsurpassed in any other park in East Africa. 'It could not be any better' is a common comment on the scenery by visitors who often promise and do come back to Kidepo. Tucked into the corner of Uganda's border with Sudan and Kenya, the park offers breathtaking Savannah landscapes, which end in rugged horizon. A huge latitudinal range and correspondingly wide climatic conditions have evolved an extremely diverse flora. As a result the variety of animal species in the park is equally abundant including many which are found no where else in Uganda. Kidepo Valley National Park

Lake Mburo National Park

Lying in the one part of Uganda covered in extensive acacia woodland, Mburo has markedly different fauna to other reserves. Lake Mburo is the best place in the country to see the gigantic eland antelope, as well as zebra, topi, impala, and several acacia-associated birds. The five lakes within the park attract hippos, crocodiles and a variety of waterbirds, while fringing swamps hide secretive papyrus specialists such as the sitatunga antelope and red, black and yellow papyrus gonalek. Lake Mburo National Park

Mgahinga Gorilla National Park

Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is located in the southwestern corner of Uganda. The Park covers the northern slopes of the three northernmost Virunga.Gorilla Tracking is the most thrilling tourist activity in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. The habituated gorilla in this park is called the .Gorilla tracking is an intensive experience that can take the whole day. The guide leads you through the gorilla's world, explaining aspects of their ecology and behavior along the way. Mgahinga Gorilla National Park

Mount Elgon National Park

Elgon is a 4,321m high extinct volcano which in prehistoric times stood taller than Kilimanjaro does today. Although the mountain straddles the Kenya border, its loftiest peak, Wagagai, lies within Uganda and is best ascended from the Uganda side.Elgon is an important watershed, and its slopes support a rich variety of altitudinal vegetation zones ranging from montane forest to high open moorland studded with the other-worldly giant lobelia and groundsel plants.Spectacular scenery is the main attraction for hikers on this oft-neglected and relatively undemanding mountain, but there is also a variety of forest monkeys and small antelope, along with elephant and buffalo. A checklist topping 300 birds includes many species not recorded elsewhere in Uganda. Mount Elgon National Park

Murchison Falls National Park

Uganda's largest national park protects a chunk of untamed African savannah bisected by the mighty river Nile. It is named for the dramatic Murchison Falls, where the world's longest river explodes violently through a narrow cleft in the Rift Valley escarpment to plunge into a frothing pool 43m below. Wildlife populations have largely recovered from the poaching of the 1980s; in the lush borassus grassland to the north of the Nile, elephant, buffalo, giraffe and a variety of antelope are regularly encountered on game drives, while lion are seen with increasing frequency. Murchison Falls National Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park

From open savannah to rainforest, from dense papyrus swamps and brooding crater lakes to the vastness of Lake Edward, it is little wonder that QENP boasts one of the highest biodiversity ratings of any game reserve in the world.Almost 100 mammal species and a remarkable 606 bird species makes this superb safari territory, with elephant, a profusion of hippos, the elusive giant forest hog and handsome Uganda kob all regularly sighted around the tourist village on the Mweya Peninsula - which also boasts a marvelous waterfront setting in the shadow of the Rwenzori Mountains. Queen Elizabeth National Park

Rwenzori Mountain National Park

The 120km Rwenzori chain is regarded to be the legendary snow-capped Mountains of the Moon, described by Ptolemy in AD150. Reaching an elevation of 5,109m, it is also Africa's tallest mountain range, exceeded in altitude only by the free-standing Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro.The distinctive glacial peaks are visible for miles around, but the slopes above 1,600m are the preserve of hikers, who rate the Rwenzoris to be the most challenging of all African mountains. Mount Rwenzori National Park

Semliki Game Reserve

Formerly called the Toro Game Reserve, this large reserve abutting Lake Albert and the northern base of the Rwenzoris is a rich mosaic of grassland, savannah, forest and wetland habitats.The fauna is correspondingly diverse: Uganda kob is the commonest large mammal, but there are also forest elephant, chimpanzees, buffalo, leopard and various monkeys and antelope. Of the 400 bird species recorded, the shoebill stork is regularly seen at close quarters on Lake Albert. Semliki Game Reserve

Semliki National Park

Semuliki National Park is an eastern extension of the vast Ituri Forest and forms part of the forest continuum during the climatic upheavals of the Pleistocene, this is one of the richest areas for both flora and fauna in Africa. (Especially for birds)Semuliki National Park is situated in the remote corner of extreme west of Uganda, in bundibugyo District. It lies on Uganda-Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border within the western arm of the East African Rift Valley. Semliki National Park

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