Queen Elizabeth National Park - Best Uganda wildlife safaris

Queen Elizabeth National Park is understandably Uganda’s most popular tourist destination and leading wildlife viewing and it boasts the highest number of tourists among Ugandan National Parks, it is located in western region of the country spanning Kasese, Kamwenge, Rubirizi and Rukungiri districts set against the backdrop of the jagged Rwenzori Mountains. The park’s boarders are the Maramagambo forest in the southeast and Kigezi game reserve’s borders, Kyambura game reserve, Kibale National Park and the Virunga National Park of Democratic republic of Congo. Queen Elizabeth National Park is famously known for its legendary tree climbing lions in the Ishasha sector of the park.

Queen Elizabeth National Park’s name also gained it more popularity, it was named after Queen Elizabeth II (late) of England to commemorate her visit to Uganda but before it was Kazinga National Park because it hosts the famous Kazinga channel that adjoins Lake Edward and George.

Queen Elizabeth is situated between Lake Edward and Lake George that are connected with a small gorge the Kazinga channel on the Park boundaries, it has an area coverage of 1978 sq km (764 sq mi) making the second largest National Park in Uganda after Murchison Falls National Park. the park boasts a lot of wonders and eye-catching feature, on your safari you will be amused by the sky in the park, you will notice that the sky sometimes seems to be much closer. This is because this area is at a higher altitude than Kampala. The highest point of the park is the Katwe explosion crater with 1350m above sea level and the lowest point it at Lake Edward with 910 m.

The diverse ecosystems of the park which includes the open grass land and sprawling  savanna plans, shady, humid forests, sparkling lakes, fertile wetlands are habitant to various wildlife species like the African big five except Rhinos, primates, birdlife to mention but a few, vegetation cover range from bushy grassland, Acacia woodland, Lakeshore or Swamp vegetation and forest grassland. The park is home to 95 mammal species with 20 carnivores, 10 primate species and over 600 recorded bird species. Apart from wildlife, the park also has other attractions which include volcanic features like volcanic cones, deep creators like lake Katwe famously known for salt and salt mining has been carried out for years  and has been a major activity for the surrounding area. The park is one of the few conservation area where human activities take place meaning that humans co-exist with wildlife in the National Park. The park was declared a Lion Conservation unit  plus the Adjacent Virunga Mountain National Park of Congo by the IUCN in 2006 because they were considered  potential lion stronghold in East Africa.

The park is governed by the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

History of Queen elizabeth national park 

The park was first gazetted in 1952 by combining the Lake George and Lake Edward game reserves as the Kazinga National park and 2 years later the park was renamed as Queen Elizabeth National Park following the Queen’s visit to Uganda. the Basongora people who were residents in the area were forced to flee in 2006 and also lack of compensation when wildlife attacked their them and their property forced them to leave and solve the problem.