Lake Mburo National Park

Wildlife & Animals

Expert

Philip is the author of the Bradt guidebook to Uganda.

The park has a good variety of wildlife. Several antelope species can be seen, including topi, duiker, oribi, bohor reedbuck and klipspringer. Elephant are absent, but herds of buffalo are quite common, and Rothschild's giraffe have been reintroduced. A healthy population of leopard is present, although mostly seen at night. Hippo and crocodile can be found in the lake.

ElephantNone

GiraffeOccasional

HippoCommon

BuffaloCommon

ZebraCommon

WildebeestNone

White RhinoNone

Black RhinoNone

LionRare

LeopardOccasional

CheetahNone

HyenaOccasional

Wild DogNone

Wildlife Highlights

Burchell's zebra and eland are only found here and in the less-accessible Kidepo Valley National Park. The rare and specialized sitatunga can sometimes be spotted in the marshes, and the park is the only place in Uganda where impala are resident. Bushbuck has a unique habit in the park of standing on the lookout on termite mounds.

Best Time for Wildlife Viewing

Lake Mburo can be visited anytime, with wildlife-viewing highlights year-round. In the Dry seasons (from June to August and December to February), animals gather around rivers and waterholes, and during the Wet seasons (March to May and September to November), large numbers of animals can be seen in the open valleys.