Attractions in Queen Elizabeth National Park
Attractions in Queen Elizabeth National Park: This is the second largest national park in Uganda, with diverse tourist attractions where visitors enjoy a fabulous setting of unique wildlife species such as animals, primates, birds, and plant species. This savannah park is located in southwestern Uganda in Kasese District and surrounded by Bushenyi, Kamwenge, and Rukungiri districts. Other landmarks that attract tourists include water bodies, crater lakes, tree-climbing lions, highlands, and the Equator landmark, among others. The park is home to about 95 mammals, 13 primates, and over 600 bird species.
Attractions in Queen Elizabeth National Park
The primary source of attraction in the park is mammals, which total 95 in number, making it one of Uganda’s protected areas with the highest concentration of animal species. The park’s protected areas of Mweya Peninsula, Kasenyi Plains, and Ishasha sector are famous for game drives, where visitors have a chance of seeing the park’s unique wildlife species, such as elephants, lions, buffalo, hippos, waterbucks, Uganda Kobs, topis, primates, and several bird species.
You must participate in activities such as game drives to get a clear view of these wildlife species; this will offer you a chance to explore various locations where animals dwell. You may engage in guided nature hikes, roam the park on foot, and meet several mammals. Especially during the dry season, when these animal species get close to water sources, visitors may still spot several mammals on the Kazinga Channel boat cruise.
Other mammals to see in Queen Elizabeth National Park are side-striped jackals, lions, tree-climbing lions, leopards, warthogs, spotted hyenas, bushbucks, defassa waterbucks, sitatungas, enormous forest hogs, Nile crocodiles, and monitor lizards.
The Unique Tree-Climbing Lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park
The rare tree-climbing lions of the Ishasha sector in the southern part of the park are one of the top attractions that attract tourists globally to come and witness these amazing, rare big cats. These lions are distinct from other lions in their capacity to climb trees and hang on the boughs of fig trees. These tree-climbing lions can be seen in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda and Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania; however, there are some sightings in Kruger National Park in South Africa.
A game drive to the Ishasha sector will allow visitors to see tree-climbing lions leisurely hanging on tree branches. These lions climb for several reasons, including hiding from their prey, hiding from insects, and fleeing ground heat, among others.
Bird Species
Over 600 bird species have been documented in Queen Elizabeth National Park, making it a premier birdwatching location and therefore drawing many bird enthusiasts. During nature walks in locations like Katwe, Mweya, Katunguru Bridge, Kasenyi, Ishasha, and others. Several bird species can be seen, such as the African Emerald Cuckoo
Birds of Queen Elizabeth National Park comprise the Egyptian Goose, Big Crested Grebe, Comb Duck, African Crake, Allen’s Gallinule, Black-crowned Night Heron, Black Crake, Yellow-throated Cuckoo, Long-tailed Cormorant, Handsome Francolin, Rare Swift, Little Grebe, African Darter, Red-eyed Dove, and Great Cormorant.
others include the Intermediate Egret, Common Ringed Plover, Eurasian spoonbill, Three-banded Plover, Goliath Heron, Ross’s Turaco, Buff-spotted flufftail, African Spoonbill, Black-headed Heron, Great Egret, Black-billed Bustard, Curlew Sandpiper, Grey Crowned Crane, Nahan’s Francolin, Water Thick-knee, white-fronted plover, Senegal lapwing, crowned lapwing, brown-chested lapwing, lesser jacana, ruddy turnstone, great snipe, common greenshank, black-winged pratincole, emerald-spotted wood dove, slender-billed gull, secretary bird, European honey buzzard, African harrier hawk, Egyptian vulture, black-chested snake eagle, and Western banded snake eagle.
Lakes and water channels
Three primary water bodies make up Queen Elizabeth National Park, and these include Lake Edward and Lake George, which are connected by the famous Kazinga Channel, a large water channel that connects the two water bodies and is popular for boat cruises, birdwatching, sport fishing, and game viewing. The boat cruise enables tourists to explore several places along the Kazinga Channel with several bird species, especially water birds like the Yellow-billed Stork, African Jacana, Cormorants, African Fish Eagle, and others.
Kazinga Channel
The Kazinga Channel has the highest population of hippos and crocodiles in East Africa, together with several other bird and fish species. There is always fresh vegetation cover along the channel, which serves as home to various water bird species like the elusive Shoebill Stork, Yellow-billed stork, African skimmer, Goliath Heron, Malachite Kingfisher, cormorants such as long-tailed cormorants, Pied kingfishers, Pink-backed Pelican, and others.
Particularly during the dry season, when the foliage is sparse throughout most of the park, the Kazinga Channel is among the greatest places to see various animals in the park. Animals do come here to drink water and eat new plant cover; they include buffalo, topis, warthogs, elephants, waterbucks, Uganda kobs, and others.
Crater lakes
Though Queen Elizabeth National Park has numerous crater lakes, only three are significant: the Katwe explosion craters, the Bunyarunguru craters, and the Ndali-Kasenda craters. These crater lakes include Lake Katwe, Lake Nyamunuka, Lake Munyanyange, Lake Bunyampaka, Lake Katinda, and Mirambi, among others. You have to participate in the nature hike activities led by armed ranger guides to view these crater lakes. Along the crater lakes are several species of birds and other animals.
The Equator Landmark
The equator line is commonly named the point where the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere, two equal sections, split the Earth. One of the countries crossed by the equator is Uganda; Queen Elizabeth is the only national park crossed by this line.
Visitors on a safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park might visit this equator line, which just happens to be in the park’s northern end along the Kikorongo area. Tourists to the Kasenyi section of the park have the chance to stand in two different hemispheres at the same time as they explore the equator line landmark.
Accommodation
Following the attractions in Queen Elizabeth National Park, the park offers a wide range of lodging choices, from basic to mid-range to luxury. These lodging choices include Mweya Safari Lodge, Jacana Safari Lodge, Tembo Safari Lodge, Ishasha Wilderness, Lake George Golf View Kazinga Channel View Resort, Kyambura Gorge Lodge, Elephant Hub Lodge, Elephant Plains Lodge, Enganzi Game Lodge, Ishasha Wilderness Camp, Marafiki Safari Lodge, Tembo Safari Lodge, Katara Lodge, and Kyambura Gorge Lodge, among others.
