Facts about Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth national park is one of the extremely exciting wildlife national parks in Uganda that is located in south western region of the country. The park is home to thrilling tourists attractions and activities that offer exceptional memories on a Uganda safari.

In this article we present to you interesting Facts about queen Elizabeth National park;

The park is renown as the second largest and one of the oldest national park. it was declared a national park in 1952 together with Murchison falls national park which is largest among all parks in Uganda and it is popular due to the mesmerizing Murchison falls. Queen Elizabeth national park occupies an area of approximately 1978 square Kilometers. The Park hosts unique impressive diversities of wildlife animals  such as; populations of antelopes, herds of African capped buffaloes, huge numbers of Elephants, Nile crocodiles, big numbers of Hippos, colorful bird species and wonderful numbers of butterfly species.

Queen Elizabeth National Park is also famous destination for bird watching experience in Uganda. The birders haven hosts over 600 bird species that are internationally rare like the rare shoebill stork thus making it one of the best ideal places for birding in Uganda. In queen Elizabeth national park the types of birds are spotted depending on the various ecological habitats that have dominated the park areas. On this note the park is recognized as an international birding destination.

The other reality about queen Elizabeth national park is that it is famous home to the largest population of African Elephants, Hippos, African buffaloes, lions, Nile Crocodiles in East Africa. According the current statics, there are over 5000 hippos, 3000 African Elephants and 1000 buffaloes. At the same time, there are numerous types of antelope species in the park such as; Uganda Kobs, Sitatungas, topis, reedbuck, duikers among others. The biggest number of sitatunga antelopes can be spotted on the shores of Kazinga channel whilst the Kasenyi sector houses the biggest numbers of Uganda Kobs in Uganda. The Kasenyi plains is a famous breeding place for Uganda Kobs. It is also important to note that Kazinga channel is the main permanent water hole in the park hosting numerous diversities of wildlife.

Queen Elizabeth national park is located with in the western branch of the African Rift Valley and it is situated with in the Albertine rift valley escarpment of Uganda that runs from Uganda to Malawi. The Rift valley has give a wonderful appearance of the kazinga Channel that flows from west and from lake George to Lake Edward however it is not easy to identify its direction. The compression and tension forces of the rift valley worked on Queen Elizabeth national park and they led to formation of interesting natural features such as; thrilling  flora and fauna as well as beautiful crater lakes.

Queen Elizabeth national park is known worldwide as a twin park to the Queen Elizabeth national park of England. These two twin parks have been emerged with an aim of acting as a natural support , project interest and cultural exchange. The other goal of combining the park was to promote and support conservation by closely involving local communities so that they feel part of the conservation efforts implemented.

After the queen of England visited the park,  the park was renamed queen Elizabeth National park and this done to commemorate the Queen Elizabeth’s visit to Uganda. Although after gazetted the park, it was named as Kazinga national park in 1952.

Originally about 1000 years ago, Queen Elizabeth national park never had any crocodile with in the Kazinga Channel canal. The crocodiles left the park as a result of volcanic eruptions which occurred in the great western rift valley. This is believed to have filled Lake Albert with ash that made it toxic thus living no life in the lake without excluding the crocodiles. However after sometime, crocodiles came back to canal via River Mubuku  and apparently they are one of the amazing tourist attraction in the park. the crocodiles play an important role in the ecosystem resilience in the park.

The first European to visit the park was known as Sir Henry marton Stanley who traveled to queen Elizabeth national park in the 1889. However by the time he visited the park, there was few settlement in the place therefore Stanley did not release the presence of human settlement since it was a small population. He ended calling the park a vast empty land. On this note, the statement by Stanley marked the starting point for protected the park.

Originally before Queen Elizabeth national park was named a national park, the land was occupied by the basongola which was an African pastoralist. Unfortunately the indigenous people relocated from the place due the epidemic disease of small pox and sleeping sickness that forced them to vacate from the place. However both the Bunyoro and Buganda kingdom used to raid the basongola cattle which was one of the reasons they had to leave this place. The few people that remained behind resorted to fishing in lake George thus they formed fishing villages like Katunguru, Kasenyi and Busonga. After the basongola tribe vacated from this place, it gave chance to vegetation growth and animal population increased. On this note by 1952 , the place was declared a national park in Uganda.

Are you planning a trip to Queen Elizabeth national park, we hope the above can be of help to assist you delight in an exception Uganda safari to this park. To a book a tour with us, please don’t hesitate to send us an inquiry on info@gorillaugandasafaribookings.com or call us directly on +256-775630809 or +256-701343598  to speak directly to our reservations team.