Game Viewing in Queen Elizabeth National Park
Game Viewing in Queen Elizabeth National Park is the best tourist experience in the park that involves in drives in the park accompanied by the professional guides who know the movement of wildlife species through the protected national park. It is an ideal activity for keen photography as you enjoy your great wildlife viewing while studying about different wild mammals, birdlife, vegetation, volcanic crater lakes, savannah grassland, and the forests in Queen Elizabeth National park.

Queen Elizabeth national park is a landmark park and above all, it is the most visited national park in Uganda located in South-western region of Uganda. The park is approximately 400 kilometres from Kampala Uganda’s capital city in hours takes 5 to 6 hours by road and by charter flight lasts in 1:15 hours by Air, which was established in 1952 has a gazette area for game reserve and forest reserve to protect excellent vast of wildlife species, birdlife, spectacular beautiful scenery of kyambura Gorge, the crater lakes like kazinga channel that connects the two lakes such as Lake Edward and Lake George, open savannah grassland, forests known as Maramangambo and many more.
Queen Elizabeth National park hosts with a variety of wild animals that make game viewing more remarkable for the travellers that visit African Wilderness Adventure. The park inhabits with about 3000 African elephants, 5000 hippos, 1000 buffaloes, over 620 bird’s species few to be mentioned include the rare shoe bill stork which can be viewed in kasenyi plains ,African hobby ,Black eater, Broad-billed Roller, Common sand martin, Great blue turaco, Grey-winged robon chat, Crab-plore, palm-nut vulture, pink-backed pelican, spotted redshank, Western banded snake eagle, Great white pelican, African skimmer, Africa fin foot, White-backed night heron, white-winged tern, Yellow-bellied wattle eye, Yellow throated cuckoo among others. Other mammals such as the unique tree-climbing lions, waterbucks, warthogs , leopards, civet, carvel cats , antelopes like Uganda kobs, statungas, Topis, duikers and many more.
What is the best time for game drive viewing in Queen?
The best season for the game viewing is in the dry season when the grass is short and rewarding to have a clear view of the hidden species in the park. The dry months with clear view starts from January to February and June to September. And during the rainy season game viewing is bit hard as the tracks are slippery and make game drive very difficult and such months include October to December and March to May within these periodic months’ rain usually breaks in to make game drive and game viewing difficult and quite unenjoyable due to that heavy rainfall that makes some animals hide and making it hard to view or see them.
What type of vehicle is good for game viewing?
The impressive game viewing in Queen Elizabeth National Park is best enjoyed in open pop up 4×4 safari vehicle in order to allow you to look over the natural inhabitants of wildlife.
Other activities in Queen Elizabeth National Park
Lion Tracking: This is actually a different activity from the usual game drives that’s why is famously known as scientific experiential lion tracking because it involves in researchers than a tourist designed activity. Lion tracking is a special activity that needs a researcher and a few other people. The lion tracking is carried out by the researchers commonly known as Uganda carnivore project using radiation trackers to track the movement of the lions with the Radio callers. This activity is conducted in open savannah grassland of kasenyi plain and ishasha sector best to track or to view the rare tree-climbing lions. Though the lion tracking involves in professional researchers and it is interesting that you the traveller can help the researcher to track the king of the jungle. This is an activity that involves one taking a close look at lions and learning their behaviours with real picture and have the everlasting experiential activity in life.
Chimpanzee trekking: The impressive chimpanzee trekking in Queen Elizabeth National Park is carried out in kyambura gorge known as the “valley of apes”. The gorge harbours with habituated chimpanzees which are said to be familiar to humans with 98% DNA. Chimpanzees tracking can be best done in morning hours and this is their right time to start their daily routine of looking for food in the morning. About their lifestyles, they sleep in the trees and they spend some hours during the day up in the trees they can as well walk on the ground to look for termites, nuts from the tree roots to feed their diet. The great apes also use tools when looking for their food such as stones used to crack nuts, sticks and twigs to get termites out of their any hills. To participate in chimpanzee tracking can help you to learn about the lifestyle of primates in kyambura gorge while having spectacular beautiful scenery of the green gorge. Chimpanzee trekking is a thriving activity that is accompanied by an experienced guide who leads you to kyambura gorge a natural habitat for this great apes. As you’re tracking there is a possibility of seeing other species like birds, trees , other primates among others and once are found tourists a given one hour to observe them while learning their behaviours in the forest, the activity can take 2 to 7 hours in the wilderness. This is really an exciting and emotional experience done on the African continent.
Mongoose tracking: Mongooses these are unique small animals that fall under the rodent group of mammals in Queen Elizabeth national park. The mongoose tracking is a 3-hour activity for travellers in Queen which is carried out on mweya peninsular and overlooking kazinga channel. This is a walking activity with the tour guide who takes you through the tracks in mweya peninsular to learn about the mongoose behaviour, you will have a chance to see beautiful birds, warthogs during this amazing activity. This will make you get out of the car and stretch your legs to do some walking as you enjoy mongoose tracking experience in Queen Elizabeth national park.
Birding in Queen: Birding is the most enjoyable activity in Uganda’s national park and here in Queen is awesome experience because the park is haven for bird paradise with over 620 bird species such as great flamingos, shoe bills, martial eagle, African broadbill, godwit, king fishers, African fish eagle, Spotted redshank, white-winged tern , Rufous-bellied heron, Red-chested Sunbird, Great blue turaco, Caspian plover, Broad-billed roller, Black bee eater, African hobby, palm-nut vulture , Common sand martin, Western banded snake eagle, Yellow-throated Cuckoo, Yellow-bellied wattle eye among others beautiful birds along kazinga channel and kyambura gorge. Queen Elizabeth national park is on the list of a home for birds and most travellers who are birder this is their stopping destination. And this reason you can have a glance at both central and eastern bird life species of Africa.
Boat cruise: This is an exciting activity and no one visits the park who does not include it on his or her itinerary. The boat cruise in Queen Elizabeth National Park is a thriving activity carried out along kazinga channel which starts at around 11 am in the morning and one for the afternoon begins at exactly 2pm up to 5pm in the evening. During your boat cruise you will have rewardable view of crocodiles along kazinga channel, hippos bathing on the shores of the channel ,nice looking birds play around big animals like buffaloes and sometime lions .While on boat cruise there is possibility of sight-seeing katunguru fishing village and watch the fisher men on how they drop in their nets into the water to yield fish.
Guided hiking: This is an amazing experience where you can meet hidden creatures in the forests, the places around. This is another activity in Queen which can be conducted in maramangambo forest which boosts with bat cave and as you are hiking you get a chance to view this cave with numerous bats hanging on the cave, walk through kyambura Gorge where you can enjoy the green vegetation in the gorge, tall trees and as well as the beautiful underground forest in kyambura gorge that harbours’ with a lot of primates. This is truly an unforgettable experience in a lifetime.
Guided nature walks: This is an interesting activity done in mweya peninsular where you can have a great viewing of different mammals along the tracks like water backs, elephants, warthogs, monkey, mongooses, lizards, forest, crater lakes and many more.
Besides game viewing you can also enjoy the cultural encounters in the neighbouring communities of Queen Elizabeth, where you can meet the local people they tell you about the usefulness of this national park to them and how they have gained from engaging in the nature conservation, visit their local craft shops where you can buy souvenir things for your future remembrance, visit Kasoga community, katwe town, Katunguru trading centre among others.
Katwe Salt Lake: Travellers can also visit the lake Katwe Salt Works and meet the salt miners who can narrate to you how the salt is mined and the problems they face doing this activity. You can as well learn about the old Germany salt factory and don’t you think that it is amazing to find out how these miners do the process of salt.
Game viewing conducted in Queen Elizabeth national park is a quite interesting and awesome experience when tourists have where to stay for their nights and meals. Above all the park ranges from luxury to mid-range safari lodge meaning you shouldn’t worry about where to stay when you come for the game viewing in Queen and such Accommodation facilities include; Mweya safari lodge, Park view safari lodge, Jacana Katara lodge, Kyambura gorge lodge and many more.

Game viewing in Queen Elizabeth National Park is all about viewing the natural creatures of species in the protected national park and here in Queen Elizabeth national park is an amazing and fantastic experience to opt for wildlife viewing with your own eyes.
