Big 5 in Queen Elizabeth National Park
Big 5 in Queen Elizabeth National Park are the big famous animals including the lions, elephants, rhinos, and Queen Elizabeth national park is located in western Uganda in the districts of Kasese, Kamwenge, Rubirizi, and Rukungiri. The park is approximately 400 kilometers by road from Kampala, it is well known to be the home of over 600 bird species like the grey-headed kingfisher, long cheasted eagle, bee-eaters among others, primate species which are found in Maramagambo forest like the chimpanzees, baboons and monkeys, 95 mammal species including the Uganda kob, warthogs, duikers, and the big five mammals except for the rhinos which are found in Ziwa Rhino sanctuary near Murchison falls national park, they include the elephants, buffalos, hippopotamus, lions, and leopards.
The word big five was derived from the big game hunters which means the five most difficult wildlife species to hunt in Africa and nowadays the term big five is commonly used in the tourism industry by tour operators and safari companies all over the world. Uganda offers an opportunity to the tourists who visit the country to see the big five mammals in national parks like Queen Elizabeth, Murchison Falls, Kidepo Valley, Lake Mburo, and many others.
The Big 5 in Queen Elizabeth National Park
The African elephants are the largest herbivore mammals in the world which make it difficult to hunt because of its size and the ability to camouflage in tall savannah grasslands. Queen Elizabeth National Park is a home of about 2500 elephants hence the reason why visitors come to the park. They live in the wild for over 50-70 years but can also find an adult of 80 years, an adult elephant weighs between 3500 kgs to 12000 kgs while the baby elephant weighs around 125 kgs. They can grow up to 14 feet tall and 30 feet wide.
Elephants in Queen feed on grass, tree branches, shrubs, twigs, leaves and consume at least 140-270 kgs in a day and spend 16 hours feeding and less than 2 hours sleeping. An adult elephant can consume up to 300 kgs of vegetation and 30-50 gallons of water on a daily basis. Elephants are social and live in a family group of up to 100 members and the mother or female elephants are known to be smaller than the males and are always protective of their young ones. Uganda has both the savannah elephants and the forest elephants which are smaller and hairy found in parks like Kibale national park, Lake Mburo national park and other parks like Murchison falls national, Kidepo valley national park among others.
The hippopotamus is among the big 5 in Queen Elizabeth National Park and is the greatest attraction in Queen Elizabeth national park. They are the second-largest land mammals in the world after the elephant, hippos are herbivores that live both in water and on land they eat grass and feed at night consuming up to 150 pounds of grass. During the day the hippos stay in the water to shield against the sun because their bodies produce a natural sunscreen that is red in color. Hippos can run 30.40 km per hour on land and they live between 40-50 years in the wild and they weigh 3 tons.
Hippos mate and produce or give birth while in water and are found at Kazinga Channel which connects Lake Edward and Lake George and this is the area that has the highest number of hippos in Uganda and around Ntungwe river in the Ishasha area hence have dominated the waterways of Queen Elizabeth National Park. However, in Uganda, they are also found in other parks as Murchison Falls, Lake Mburo, Semuliki National Park among others.
The African cape buffalos, are one of the big 5 in Queen Elizabeth national park and are also known as the water buffalos. They are communal animals that live in large herds of many individuals. They live in two types of groups; the family group of herds which contains the females and the calves and the bachelor herd. Male bachelor groups contain the young buffalos of 4-7 years and the adults of about 12 years and above. Young buffalos like to fight the old and aging buffalo hence chasing them out of the herd and usually found alone in the grassland. Buffalos have a live span of 15-25 years in the wild and like to stay or live in open savannah grasslands and near the water banks because they drink a lot of water hence always seen wallowing in the mud during the hot days so as to cool off their bodies and in QENP they live on the banks of Lake Edward, Lake George among others. An adult buffalo is as large as 4-6 feet tall and weighs up to 700 kgs. Buffalos are the most dangerous and powerful animals especially when found wounded and are always protective of their young ones the calves in that it’s always kept in the middle of the herd. In Uganda, we have the savannah buffalos and the forest buffalos which are smaller and more dangerous and can be found in other parks like Murchison falls national park, Kidepo valley national park, and Lake Mburo national park.
African lions are the large carnivores that belong to the cat family and are always described as the kings of the jungle or king of animal. Queen Elizabeth national park is the only park in Uganda with the tree climbing lions which are found in the southern part of Ishasha. The lions are the only cats to live in a group, therefore, they are usually found hanging, sleeping or resting on the fig tree branches in the afternoon, the reason being to cool off from there hunt and be able to see the prey and to also run away from the tsetse flies among others.
Lions are predators live in the savannah grasslands where tall trees, grasses, shrubs and bushes which can offer camouflage while they are hunting and the females are excellent hunters and are the ones that hunt while the males act as protectors, they hunt the Uganda kobs, antelopes, warthogs and many others in the park. Male lions are different from the female lions or lionesses in that females have a heavy mane of hair around their neck and shoulders and usually, give birth to a litter of about 3 cubs. The lions grow up between 10-16 years of age in the wild in that male lions weigh over 400 pounds and the females weigh over 300 pounds. Males are thrown out of the group between the age of 3-4 years and they try to dominate the group while they grow up like between the age of 7-10 years whereas the young females always stay with their mothers at the same place and don’t like to move around the wild.
Queen Elizabeth national park is the only park in Uganda which allows a tourist to take part in lion tracking experience with the researchers and the guide and during lion tracking the safari vehicle is allowed to go off track so as to go near the lion once it has been tracked for a clear view and to take good photos. However lions are also found in other parks in Uganda like Murchison fall and Kidepo valley among others though they are not the tree climbing lions like the ones in Ishasha in QENP.
The leopards, these are also among the big five animals in QENP and are usually seen during the game drives especially when you use the Kasenyi track. Leopards are carnivores and also belong to the cat family like the lions, they have a tawny fur, dark rosette like black fur fierce animals. Leopards are solitary and nocturnal animals unlike other cats in that they camouflage at night and can be seen if a visitor participates in a night game drive in Queen Elizabeth national park which implies that they are more active in the night than during the day, they prefer thick bush when they have a kill and the climb up in the trees to keep their hunt from the lions and the hyenas, they prey on fish, reptiles, birds, baboons, monkeys, antelopes and many others.
Leopards are good at climbing trees and know how to swim compared to the lions and the male leopards weigh about 130 pounds while the female weighs about 80 pounds. The male can jump up to 10 feet straight up and have a life span of 15-20 years in the wild. Leopards are also found in parks like Mgahinga gorilla national park, kibale national park,lake mburo national park, Murchison falls national park and many others.
Queen Elizabeth national park has a wide range of activities that the visitors can engage in while on a safari including birding, game drives which allows the visitors to also spot other animals, chimpanzee tracking, cultural encounters, nature walks in Mweya peninsula, boat cruise and many more activities and also has quite a number of accommodation services like Safari cottages ,Mweya Safari lodge, Bush lodge, Buffalo lodge, Pumba safari among others that offer all types of dishes and drinks, self contained rooms, WI-FI and other services to the visitors.
Queen Elizabeth is not only a home of the big five but also a habitat of many birds, primate and animals, like antelopes, warthogs, Uganda kobs, water bucks, oribi, topi, giant forest hog, mangoose among others, primates that are found in Maramagambo forest include vervet monkeys, red tailed monkey, blue monkey, black and white colobus monkey, baboons and chimpanzees in Kyambura gorge, birds which include shoebill, bee-eaters, white-winged warbler, papyrus gonolek,pink backed pelican and many others which give a visitor in queen Elizabeth an experiential, exciting and interesting safari.
