Wildlife of Uganda

Uganda has a wide variety of different habitats, including mountains, hills, tropical rainforest, woodland, freshwater lakes, swamps and savanna with scattered clumps of trees.

[2] Uganda has ten national parks and thirteen wildlife reserves and sanctuaries, and in these areas, the protection of nature takes precedence over human development.

Vegetation in the lower areas includes woodlands of Albizia and Terminalia, and mixed Khaya lowland semi-evergreen forest up to 1,000 metres (3,300 ft).

[6] In the northwest of the country, in the Murchison Falls National Park, 80% of the tree cover has been lost over several decades and the remaining woodland is dominated by Terminalia schimperiana and Prosopis africana, the balance being created by herbivores, which suppress regeneration, and fires which favour fire-tolerant species.

[7] In the Semliki National Park in the west of the country, the vegetation is predominantly medium altitude moist evergreen to semi-deciduous forest with Cynometra alexandri being the dominant species of tree.

Higher still, there is a zone of Afrocarpus and the bamboo Yushania alpina, and the summit moorland has tussock grasses, heaths, low herbs, giant lobelias and groundsels.

[3][11] Nearly half of the mountain gorillas in the world live in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, and it is also a sanctuary for colobus monkeys and chimpanzees, and birds such as hornbills and turacos.

Other terrestrial mammals that are found within Kibale National Park include red and blue duikers, bushbucks, sitatungas, bushpigs, giant forest hogs, common warthogs, and African buffalo.