Lake Mburo National Park is a gem of a park, conveniently located close to the western highway that connects Kampala to the parks of western Uganda. Though the park is just 370km2 in size, its landscapes are varied and even a short drive is alive with interest and colour. You’ll pass gallery forest, open savanna and acacia woodland, rock kopjes, seasonal and permanent swamps, and open water, as you search for the wealth of wildlife they support. This includes species such as impala, Burchell’s zebra, and eland that are not found elsewhere in western Uganda.

Flora and Fauna

A variety of vegetative habitats surround the open water of Lake Mburo. The lake’s western side is dominated by a grassy escarpment rising above a shoreline fringed with acacia forest and the closed canopy Rubanga forest. To the north and east, grassy valley floors, made seasonally lush and soggy by rain, drain between undulating hills. These seep through expanses of wetland into the lake. Rock kopjes are found along the eastern margins of the park. park.

These varied habitats support an impressive variety of wildlife including 68 mammal species. These include some rarities. Lake Mburo is the only park in Uganda to contain impala and the only one in the rift region to host Burchell’s zebra and eland. In Uganda, topi are only found in Lake Mburo and Queen Elizabeth National Parks. Commoner species include warthog, buffalo, oribi, Defassa waterbuck and reedbuck. Leopard and hyena are also present while hippo and crocodile are found in the lake.

The park also has a very respectable birdlist with around 315 species recorded to date including the shoebill, papyrus yellow warbler, African finfoot, saddle billed stork, brown chested wattled plover, Carruther’s cisticola, Tabora cisticola, great snipe, Abyssinian ground hornbill and white winged warbler. Acacia woodland bird species are especially well represented while forest species may be found in Rubanga Forest.