Queen Elizabeth National Park Facts; There are a lot of outstanding facts about Queen Elizabeth National Park, first of all is one of the oldest and second largest national park come along with Murchison Falls National Park, that covers an area of about 1,978 square kilometers and was established in 1952 as the national park but at first was named as Kazinga Channel
Queen Elizabeth national park is located in western region of Uganda surrounded with several districts of Kasese, Kamwenge, Rubirizi and Rukungiri and estimates 400 kilometers by road southwest of Kampala –Uganda’s Capital City.
However, Queen Elizabeth National park was established in 1952 as Kazinga National Park by combining Lake George and Lake Edward Game Reserves. Then after two years it was renamed by Queen Elizabeth 11 as Queen Elizabeth National Park.
The park is known for its abundant wildlife with over 95 mammal species including ;African elephants ,Giant forest hog ,Chimpanzees , Leopard ,Spotted hyenas ,Nile crocodile ,Waterbuck, Ugandan Kob ,African buffalos ,African elephants ,hippopotamus ,lions among others .However ,it’s popular for its tree-climbing lions whose males often sport black manes something that marked Queen Elizabeth national park to be the top visited safari destination on Uganda Safari and among the top visited on African Safari. With great pleasure, of recently ‘’2020’’ the executive director Samuel John Mwandha of ‘’UWA’’ Uganda Wildlife Authority stated that the wildlife in park has been increased in the last five years.
Queen Elizabeth national park is the top birding site on Uganda Birding Tours ,2 best site for birding in Africa and ranks 6th positions of the world’s birding. This is because of the various ecological habitats that make numerous of bird adapt to the environment of the park where you get a chance to view the uncommonly unique species shoe bill stork among the rest. More even, the park is internationally recognized by the international birding as an important birding area ‘’IBA’’.
The fact is that, over 10000 years there had no crocodile in the Kazinga channel water body of Queen Elizabeth National Park. These species had to vacate Kazinga channel during the Volcanic active period in the western rift valley that fills Lake Edward with the volcanic ash from the eruption which made the water bodies. Later on, these crocodiles came back to water bodies through River Mubuku and currently have become one of the most attraction within the park.
Formerly Queen Elizabeth national park was a grazing land for an indigenous African pastoralists tribe called the ‘’Basongora’’. Although the Basongora left the park areas due to periodic cattle raiding by Buganda and Bunyoro Kingdom. The one who stayed behind in the area were forced to shift to the fishing areas of Lake Edward, Lake gorge and Kazinga Channel thus forming the Queen Elizabeth National Park fishing villages of Busoga, Kasenyi, katunguru many others.
Well, the first European to set a foot in Queen Elizabeth national park was Sir Henry Marton Stanley, he was an English explore who visited Uganda in a year of 1889 and by the time he visited Queen Elizabeth National Park and he did not find it as human settlement but just a wide vacant land. Upon his arrival, he had time to do a self-driven safari adventure through the plains of Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Fact is that Queen Elizabeth national park is famous for its volcanic features including the volcanic cones and deep craters with many crater lakes like the Katwe craters from which salt is extracted.
More fact about Queen Elizabeth National Park is known as a twin park to Queen Elizabeth Country Park in England. These two protected areas work together as cultural exchange projects, naturally support. The major concern for this amalgamation is to promote and impact the conservation through supporting the local communities who also part of implementing the conservation plan.
The fact is that ,the park is well known as one of Uganda’s most famous tourist destinations on Uganda Safaris yearly as it receives one of the highest number of visitors of any of the country’s national park .There are incredible activities to do including Chimpanzee tracking ,Game drive that includes in viewing the unique tree climbing lions in Ishasha sector , Night game drive ,Lion tracking , Nature walk ,Birding ,the lions tracking experience is done by the Uganda Carnivore Program among other attractions that can make safari here worth a visit.
In fact, that Queen Elizabeth National park can be easily accessed by both air or by car. Travelers visiting the park by car can take about 5 to 6-hour drive from Kampala capital to access the park. Alternatively, you can connect the park by a daily domestic flight ‘’Aerolink Uganda’’ from Entebbe International Airport which lands at Mweya Airstrip, Kihihi Airstrip or Kasese Airstrip.
Queen Elizabeth national park boosts with number of comfortable tourist’s accommodations that includes a range of lodges and tented camps.
