Lake Mburo National Park

Lake Mburo National Park is located in Kiruhura District in western Uganda. The park is situated about 30 kilometres (19 mi), by road, east of Mbarara the largest city in the sub-region. This location is approximately 240 kilometres (150 mi), by road, 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.

The Lake Mburo National Park 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, and rich acacia-woodland, and grassy valleys which all 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 hosts a variety of animals, that is to say 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, oribi. There are 315 bird species. The vegetation is mainly open savannah of acacia trees, olea and boscia. Lake Mburo NP is a natural haven for fauna and flora. The bank teems with animals and birds. Crocodiles and hippopotami are permanent residents, and buffaloes come to drink during the dry season. The wide variety of resident birds includes 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 rare shoebills.

Access to the park is by Masaka-Mbarara Road from Kampala.

Driving time to Lake Mburo National Park is around ± 4 hours.