LION TRACKING IN QUEEN ELIZABETH N/PARK.

In Uganda, experiential lion tracking can only be done in Queen Elizabeth national park in the western part of the country. In Queen Elizabeth NP is where you can find these rare climbing lions in the Ishasha sector. Tracking lions can be done in two shifts a day - morning and evening.

Queen Elizabeth is the second largest national park in the country having diverse wildlife in form of flora and fauna. This has led to emergence of different tourist activities such as the game drive, boat cruise, bird watching, chimpanzee trekking and now lion tracking.

Tracking lions in this park is more and known as the activity done for research purposes and tourists take a close spot of the lions in their natural habitats as they learn about their unique behaviour. This is done by use of radio calls in company of the Uganda Wildlife Authority park rangers while using radio callers to monitor the movements of these rare predators.

What you need to know is that tracking lions is one of the interesting tourist activities in Queen Elizabeth National park. Lion tracking requires a small number of visitors not like game drives where very many people could get involved. This is because a lot of people end up stressing the ecosystem which is in turn dangerous to the lives of the lions.

Also, in fewer numbers, there is no destruction while collecting information by the researchers hence collecting accurate data information. Again, you get the best experience with limited numbers, through taking good pictures and everyone can get a chance to spot a lion.

The lions stay in a family or group of about 3-25 members and a group are termed as a pride, led headed by the male lion. The female lion is called a lioness and her main job is to hunt for food and take care of young cubs. During tracking, you will notice that the number of lions keeps increasing in number.

This activity starts in the morning, after a light breakfast which is followed by easing yourself since you can’t get out of the vehicles while in the jungle. Then, head for a short briefing at the park offices and assigned to the park ranger with a gun to protect you from any danger or attacks.

Spend about 2-3 hours in the jungle while trekking the lions and meet other predators like leopards, hyenas and many more. Other mammals include elephants, warthogs, buffaloes, different antelopes like Uganda kobs and much more.

How to access Queen Elizabeth national park?

The park is strategically located and it can be accessed by either air or road. Using the road, you can either use Kampala-Mityana-Fortportal road connecting to Kasese. Distance covered is 390km, a 5-6 hours’ drive or using Kampala-Masaka-Mbarara then connect to Kasese, a distance covering 410km, 6-7 hours of drive.

Also, you can use air transport by booking from Kajjansi airstrip with charter or scheduled flight by Aerolink to any of the 3 airstrips in Queen Elizabeth N/park - Kasese, Mweya or Ishasha.