There are a variety of Murchison Falls mammals that always take visitors’ interests while in Murchison Falls National Park. The Park lies at the northern end of the Albertine Rift Valley, where the sweeping Bunyoro escarpment tumbles into a vast, palm-dotted savanna. First gazetted as a game reserve in 1926, Murchison Falls National Park is Uganda’s largest and oldest conservation area.
Big Game Murchison Falls Mammals
The park is home to more than 76 species of mammals including four of the “Big Five”. That is, huge herds of buffaloes and elephants, well-camouflaged leopards that can be sighted at the old Pakuba Safari Lodge, and a healthy population of lions.
You can top up with rhino tracking in search for rhinos that are conserved at the nearby Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. The sanctuary has over 22 rhinos and the population is gradually increasing every year since 2005 when it was set up.
Murchison Falls is also known for its huge population of Rothschild’s giraffes, which can only be viewed here and in Kidepo Valley National Park, while in Uganda. The park has got over 400 giraffes that you can be able to spot during a safari game drive on any of the safari tracks in the park.
Other wildlife species that can be viewed regularly along the game tracks include the Jackson’s hartebeests, bushbucks, Uganda kobs, waterbucks, jackals, duikers, buffaloes, elephants, mangoose, hare, hippos, and warthogs. Resident crocodiles and hippos as well as other semi-aquatic animals, can be found along the Nile during a boat cruise safari.
Primates
Olive baboons are common along the roadsides, inside and outside the park. They are commonly seen around Paraa Safari Lodge and at the ferry crossing areas, so be sure to keep your car windows and doors closed if you don’t want to lose your lunch! And also, as you take your lunch be careful of the baboons and elephants that would smell the food from a distance and come to attack.
The blue and red-tailed and black-and-white colobus monkeys can also be found in the forested sectors. The savanna-dwelling common patas monkey is only found here and in Kidepo Valley National Park. Around 800 chimpanzees live in the Kaniyo-Pabidi and Budongo Forests.
Besides Murchison Falls mammals, the park has got over 460 bird species that make it the ideal birding destination.