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Queen Elizabeth National Park
Most popular savannah park in Uganda and the best place to see lions including the Tree Climbing lions
Introducing 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.
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. If you want to see all the big 5 mammals in Uganda, then you might want to check out our 6 days safari in Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth National Park package.
Experience the Queen Elizabeth National Park
Wildlife 
Birdlife
Wildlife at the Queen Elizabeth National Park
Uganda’s most popular and accessible park and with good reason. Most famous for the tree-climbing lions, the park is also home to most of the big game found in the more famous East African parks, but without the crowds. Kyambura Gorge is home to a small chimpanzee population and an afternoon boat trip on the Kazinga Channel offers a different wildlife perspective. Herds of elephant come to drink at the water’s edge, whilst colourful water birds wade in the shallows alongside fishermen tending their nets in the setting sun.
Queen Elizabeth National Park has a variety of wild animals that make game drives memorable for the tourists that visit Africa. Queen Elizabeth national park has about 3000 African elephants, 1000 buffaloes, 5000 hippos, over 619 bird species, warthogs, Mongooses, monkeys, chimpanzees in Kyambura Gorge, Kobs , Statungas, Topis, Waterbucks, Lions Leopards, Civet, carvel cats among others.
The Kasenyi plains in the northern part of the park are arguably the most scenic and best places to spot wildlife in Queen Elizabeth national park. The Uganda Kobs use the plains as breeding grounds. The plains also attract other antelope species, buffaloes, Elephants and predators like Hyenas and lions – making it a perfect place to watch the battles between the big cats and herbivorous animals.
Birdlife at the Queen Elizabeth National Park
Queen Elizabeth national park is gazette as an important birding area (IBA) because of the many bird species this area harbors. Queen Elizabeth national park has over 619 bird species; shoe bill stock, king fishers, African fish eagle , flamingos (seasonal), African broad bill, martial eagle, god wit among other interesting birds along kazinga channel and kyambura gorge. Queen Elizabeth national park is a must visit for the birders that visit Africa. The forest vegetation link central Africa (Congo) to east African (Uganda). For this reason you will have a glance at both central and eastern bird species of Africa.
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.
Best time to visit Queen Elizabeth National Park
The best season for the drive is the dry season; January to February and June to September. During the rainy season game viewing is hard as the tracks are slippery and make game drives very difficult and thses months include October to December and March to May. Also the rain interrupts the game drives and game viewing at large since during the rainy seasons some animals hide and it becomes hard to see them.
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