Queen Elizabeth National Park is Uganda’s most popular and biodiverse safari destination, offering breathtaking landscapes, abundant wildlife, and rich cultural heritage. Originally founded as Kazinga National Park in 1952, it was renamed in 1954 to commemorate a visit by Queen Elizabeth II of England. Today, the park stands as one of Africa’s greatest wildlife havens and is recognized as a world biosphere reserve, filled with an abundance of wildlife including the famous tree-climbing lions. Its remarkable ecological variety gives it one of the highest biodiversity ratings of any game reserve in the world.

Location, Vegetation, Size & Altitude

Location

Queen Elizabeth National Park is situated in the Western Region of Uganda, spanning the districts of Kasese, Kamwenge, Rubirizi, and Rukungiri. It is located along the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and shares borders with the Kyambura Game Reserve, the Kigezi Game Reserve, and Kibale National Park within Uganda, as well as Virunga National Park across the DRC border. The park stretches between Lake Edward in the south and Lake George in the north, with the two lakes connected by the Kazinga Channel. The park straddles the equator, with monuments marking the exact spot where it crosses latitude 0°.

Size & Altitude

Queen Elizabeth National Park covers an area of 764 square miles (1,978 sq km), and the elevation fluctuates from 2,985 to 4,560 feet (910 to 1,390 m) above sea level. It lies on the floor of the Albertine Rift Valley, 914 metres above sea level, at the foot of the 5,100-metre Rwenzori Mountains.

Vegetation

Fifty-seven vegetation types have been identified in the park, though these can be summarized as just five: forest, grassland, bushy grassland, Acacia woodland, and lakeshore/swamp vegetation. Its varied habitats include grassland, woodland, moist tropical forest, wetlands, freshwater rivers and lakes, and saline lakes. Of this, almost 40,000 hectares is covered by medium-altitude semi-deciduous forest. The park’s diverse ecosystems also include vast papyrus swamps, volcanic crater lakes, and open savanna plains.

Wildlife in the Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park is home to upwards of 95 mammal species — the most of any of Uganda’s parks — and helps to explain why this is the country’s most-visited safari destination.

Big Game & Herbivores

The park boasts approximately 5,000 hippos, 2,500 elephants, and 10,000 buffalo. Other common herbivores include around 20,000 Ugandan kobs, along with bushbucks, topis, Defassa waterbucks, and warthogs.

Predators & Big Cats

Predators include lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and side-striped jackals, and the park supports 20 species of carnivores, making it one of Uganda’s top destinations for predator sightings. Most iconic among them are the tree-climbing lions of the Ishasha sector, who reportedly climb trees to protect themselves from tsetse flies or to enjoy the cool breeze away from the heat on the ground.

Primates

There are 10 primate species in the park, including chimpanzees, black-and-white colobus monkeys, vervet monkeys, olive baboons, and the Uganda grey-cheeked mangabey, found only in Uganda and in Minziro Forest Reserve across the border in Tanzania.

Park Tourism Activities

Game Drives

The Kasenyi Plains in the northeast of the park are an especially popular area for animal spotting, where visitors can find lions, elephants, leopards, spotted hyenas, buffaloes, Ugandan kobs, and Defassa waterbucks in relatively plain view.

Boat Cruise on the Kazinga Channel

Visitors engage in boat cruises on the Kazinga Channel, which connects Lake George in the east and Lake Edward in the west. During the cruise, visitors get a chance to see crocodiles, hippos, buffaloes, elephants, waterbucks, warthogs, and spotted hyenas along the banks.

Chimpanzee Tracking

The Kyambura Gorge, a verdant forested 100-metre-deep valley, is home to a large number of primates and is popular for chimpanzee tracking tours.

Bird Watching

The park is home to 618 bird species, the 6th highest diversity in the world and the highest in Africa, making it a perfect destination for birding safaris. Notable species include the African fish eagle, shoebill stork, flamingos, and the grey-crowned crane — Uganda’s national bird.

Cultural Encounters & Salt Mining

During cultural encounters, visitors are allowed to visit Lake Katwe through the Katwe Tourism Information Centre, which is famously known for its salt mining, where the traditional method of salt extraction has been ongoing for several centuries.

Hippo Census

In this unique activity, tourists join park rangers in counting hippopotamuses along the Kazinga Channel to help determine the exact population numbers — a hands-on conservation experience unlike any other in Uganda.