Uganda is known as the destination in Africa to view the rare Mountain Gorilla in the wild. The country is home to over 400 Mountain Gorilla’s, more than half of the worlds’ population of these beautiful animals. However, Uganda is not only for gorilla viewing, but also a fantastic location to experience diverse wildlife and fauna. The Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Queen Elizabeth National Park are the best places to discover the diversity of Uganda.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is located in southwestern Uganda along the edge of the Rift Valley and is known as one of Uganda’s oldest and most biologically diverse rainforests. The forest is around 25,000 years old and is home to about 120 mammal and over 400 plant species. One of the exciting mammals that can be found here, besides the Mountain Gorilla, is the black-and-white Colobus Monkey. The Colobus Monkey is found high up in the tall trees of the forest. These small animals do not have any thumbs, using their hands as hooks, allowing them to jump faster from tree to tree. Spotting one can be quite a challenge since they jump from tree to tree at immense speeds, but a good game would be to see who can lay eyes on one first!
Other than exciting mammals such as the Colobus Monkey, The Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is also home to over 220 species of butterflies and more than 1,000 plant species. Baboons and chimps can also be found here, making the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest a great location for ape enthusiasts. One of Uganda’s most interesting animals is the l’hoest monkey. This monkey is usually found at an elevation of 1000m and spends most of its life in trees. They sleep in trees at night in an upright sitting position and move around by either swinging on branches or by swinging on each other’s tails.
Queen Elizabeth National Park is known as Uganda’s most popular tourist destination due to its large population of various wildlife, such as the forest elephant, lion, leopard and much more. The forest elephant is very similar to the original African elephant, except for the fact that it has smaller tusks that point downwards. This allows the forest elephant to navigate around the tropical forest jungles of Uganda. These elephants also communicate with one other by using low pitched sounds that cannot be heard by the human ear. Within the crater lakes of Queen Elizabeth National Park, massive flocks of flamingos can be seen and many other birds such as the black bee-eater and the shoebill stork.
The Queen Elizabeth National Park is also home to over 5,000 hippos and around 10,000 buffalo. Uganda is therefore a fantastic game viewing location to discover a variety of new and unseen wildlife along with many other well-known animal species. The beautiful mountainous terrain combined with the indigenous plant species of Uganda also make it a wonderful destination to view some of the most breath-taking landscapes.
