LAKE MBURO NATIONAL PARK;
INTRODUCTION;

Located between Masaka plus Mbarara, Lake Mburo National Park is an annex to the Tanzania plains. To the north the park is neighbored by Kampala-Mbarara highway and runs for four hours drive starting from Kampala.
It is somewhat a small park on 256 square kilometers and today the park in the country that has a full lake enclosed within its territories. Its terrain is mainly covered by grasslands, acacia woodland plus wetland. In the heart of the park is Lake Mburo which in concert with the other five lakes in the park attracts crocodiles, water birds plus hippos resulting into a large wetland locality with a diversity of plants and animals.
Animals in the park include the rare Topi, giant eland, huge land antelope, zebras, buffalos, leopards, hyenas, Klipspringer, impala, rock hyrax, civet, water bucks and warthogs. The fishing village in Rwonyo is a section of the park and yet the most often caught fish from the lake is tilapia which they catch on their traditional canoes using their local fishing methods.
It is a haven to numerous acacia allied water birds, papyrus Gonolek and more that 310 of these have been brought to book such as black bellied bustard, marabou stork, bee eaters, swamp fly catchers, bare-faced go-away bird, long tailed sterling, bronze tailed sterling, Nubian wood pecker, and Rupp ell’s and the pennant-winged night jar commonly seen in the migratory season as well as the uncommon shoe bill stork.
meanwhile the swamps are a good hide out for the secretive papyrus members like the yellow, red plus black-papyrus Gonalek and sitatunga antelopes and the
Of all national parks in the country, this park is the closest to the capital Kampala and its about 2 to 3 hours to reach there. The park is very accessible and serves as a refreshing destination for those traveling farther to the parks or reserves in the far west.
However, Lake Mburo National Park is located in the rain-shadow entangled between Mountain Rwenzori and Lake Victoria receiving about 800mm of rain annually. The long rains start in February and finish in June while the short ones start in September all through to December and the hottest of all being July plus August.

LOCAL PEOPLE;

The park is majorly neighbored by the Banyakole people of the Ankole Kingdom from Mbarara District and counted Baganda people from the adjacent Masaka District. These residents are pastoralists/herds men keeping the long-horned Ankole cattle and also practice subsistence farming and utilize the lake in the park to support their livelihood by getting fresh water for household activities and fish for food.

The increase in the population today has resulted into low agricultural productivity plus absence of an alternative financial source and this in the long run has left the biggest half of the population depending on resources from this National Park.

Lake Mburo Tour Activities
Accommodation Options