Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park covers nearly 2,000 square kilometres across four districts in western Uganda, making it the country's second-largest protected area. Its landscapes range from open savanna acacia woodland along the Kasinga Channel to dense forest patches, papyrus wetlands, and volcanic craters, creating a mosaic of habitats that supports one of the richest combinations of wildlife in East Africa. The park's wildlife list includes 95 mammal species and over 600 bird species, numbers that place it comfortably among the most biodiverse parks in the region. The Kazinga Channel, which connects Lake George and Lake Edward, is the park's central waterway and the highlight of most visits: a 36-kilometre boat cruise brings you within metres of hundreds of hippos, Nile crocodiles, and waterbirds including African skimmers, malachite kingfishers, and African fish eagles.

The most famous wildlife spectacle here is the tree-climbing lions of the Ishasha sector, located in the southern part of the park near the DRC border. Unlike anywhere else in Africa at this level of accessibility, the lions of Ishasha have adapted the unusual behaviour of climbing fig and acacia trees to rest and survey the surrounding savanna, their dark manes contrasting with the pale bark. Males frequently display full black manes, adding to the theatrical quality of the sightings. The reason for the climbing behaviour is debated among wildlife biologists — possibly to escape tsetse fly, find cooler resting spots, or avoid disturbance frombuffalo — but the result for visitors is unforgettable.

The park is also distinctive for its volcanic geology. The Katwe craters, a series of extinct volcanic explosion craters some containing salt lakes, are found within the park boundaries. Salt has been extracted from these craters by local communities for centuries, a human use of the landscape that predates the park's founding and continues today. The contrast between this living human economy and the wildlife all around it is part of what makes Queen Elizabeth feel like a park with genuine depth and complexity. The area around Ishasha also contains the Maramagambo Forest, a large tract of forest that provides habitat for chimps, python colonies, and a variety of forest birds.

The park was founded in 1952 as Kazinga National Park by combining the Lake George and Lake Edward Game Reserves, and renamed two years later to commemorate a visit by Queen Elizabeth II. The park was twinned with Queen Elizabeth Country Park in England in 2008 as part of a cultural and conservation exchange programme. Today it is considered one of the most accessible and varied safari destinations in Uganda, with a road network that allows game drives, boat cruises, and forest walks within a single visit.

Tree-climbing lions in the Ishasha sector are a unique behavioural spectacle found nowhere else in Africa at this accessibility.

The Kazinga Channel boat cruise is one of the best concentrated wildlife experiences in Uganda, with guaranteed hippo encounters and excellent birding.

The combination of savanna, wetland, forest, and volcanic crater habitats produces extraordinary overall biodiversity in one park.