Highlights
Lake Mburo National Park is located in Kiruhura District in western Uganda. The park is situated about 30 kilometres (19 miles) east of Mbarara, the largest city in this sub-region, and isapproximately 240 kilometres (150 miles) west of Kampala, Uganda’s capital and largest city.
At 260 square kilometres (100 sq mi), the park is the smallest of Uganda’s Savannah national parks and is named after the lake which falls in this territory. Its sculptured landscape, with rolling hills and idyllic lake shores has a varied mosaic of habitats; forest galleries, seasonal and permanent swamps, rich acacia-woodland and grassy valleys, all of which support a wealth of wildlife. Being near the equator, the rainfall pattern is bimodal, with the long rains occurring from February to June, and the short rains from September to December.
This little park still hosts a wide variety of animals and hosts 68 mammal species, including a large number of Impalas (the antelope from which “Kampala” is named after), plains zebras, Uganda kobs, duikers, bushbucks, topis, buffaloes, leopards, spotted hyenas, Defassa waterbucks, warthogs and oribi. Additionally the bank of the lake teems with animals and birds with crocodiles and hippopotami amongst the permanent residents. For the bird lovers there are approximately 315 bird species to be found in the park making it yet another fabulous location for bird watching. Highlights of the birds to be seen include finfoots, malachite kingfishers, pied kingfishers, African fish eagles, Rüppell’s long-tailed starlings, blue-headed coucals, tambourine doves, hammerkops, pelicans, herons, cormorants, red-faced barbets, grey crowned cranes, papyrus yellow warblers and even the elsuive shoebills. The vegetation is mainly open savannah of acacia trees, olea and boscia making Lake Mburo NP a natural haven for fauna and flora.
Access to the park is via the Masaka-Mbarara Road from Kampala, and driving time to Lake Mburo National Park from Kampala is approximately 4 hours.