Uganda Destinations Lake Mburo National Park

Lake Mburo National Park is a small but beautiful gem, conveniently located near the highway that connects Kampala to the western Ugandan parks. It is the smallest of Uganda’s savannah national parks, with ancient Precambrian metamorphic rocks dating back over 500 million years underpinning it. 350 bird species, as well as zebra, impala, eland, buffalo, oribi, Defassa waterbuck, leopard, hippo, hyena, topi, and reedbuck, can be found there.

Lake Mburo, along with 13 other lakes in the area, is part of a 50-kilometer-long wetland system connected by a swamp. Within the park’s boundaries are five of these lakes. Because there are no elephants to keep the vegetation in check, Lake Mburo National Park now has a lot of woodland. The savanna is interspersed with rocky ridges and forested gorges in the park’s western section, while patches of papyrus swamp and narrow bands of lush riparian woodland line many lakes.

PARK AT A GLANCE

  • Size: 370km2
  • Altitude: 1,220m – 1,828m above sea level
  • Wetland habitats comprise 20% of the park’s surface
  • The parks’ precarious past has seen wildlife virtually eliminated several times: firstly in various attempts to rid the region of tsetse flies, then to make way for ranches, and finally as a result of subsistence poaching.
  • 20% of the park’s entrance fee is used to fund local community projects such as building clinics and schools.