I'm going to Uganda in 2 weeks on a field trip with university. We are visiting Kibale National Park and Queen Elizabeth National Park. Can anyone give me a rough list of what I can most likely expect to see (mostly interested in mammals but all welcome) or anything specific to look out for e.g rare species, Thanks Matt
You are in for a treat: Rare or unusual species at Queen Elizabeth: --Uganda Kob --Giant Forest Hog! --Banded mongoose --Topi (in the southwestern section--Ishasha) --Red-tailed Guenon --tree-climbing lions! (Ishasha) --tree pangolin --more hippos than you can imagine You will definitely see kob, impala, waterbuck, buffalo, hippos, pelicans, waterbirds galore, elephants, fish eagles, herons, saddle-billed stork, spoonbills, vervet monkeys, warthog, Nile monitor, baboons. Unfortunately no rhinos or giraffe It is one of the most spectacular landscapes on earth. Kibale: --Chimps --Black and white colobus --red-tailed guenon --Blue monkey --Red colobus --Vervet --L'Hoest's guenon! --Ruwenzori turaco --rock pythons --Egyptian fruit bats Beautiful forest, with the highest recorded density of primates anywhere on earth. Enjoy!
in Queen Elizabeth the giant forest hogs are often easily seen about by day which is a bonus. Kibale has the best chance in Uganda for seeing chimps, and there are thirteen species of primates overall in this park; there are also night tours for civets etc, and a wetland reserve (for birds). See if there is time to talk your group into a trip to Entebbe. Its about an hour out of the capital Kampala and minibuses run there almost constantly. The Botanic Gardens there are excellent for birds and practically-guaranteed close-up sightings of black-and-white colobus (because they're used to people). There's also a sort of 'zoo' in Entebbe (really an animal rescue centre sort of place). But the main reason to go to Entebbe is the Mabamba Swamp (about another hour west of Entebbe) where you can go out in boats to spot shoebills.
We fly into Entebbe and spend the first night there but unfortunately as it's a university field trip for our course we are on a pretty strict schedule and don't have any free time other than an hour here and there in between work in the national parks. I'm sure I'll go back to Uganda later in life though on my own schedule.
