Kidepo Valley National Park harbors a great diversity of animal species than other parks in Uganda. These include carnivores, ungulates, and primates. There are high chances of viewing tree climbing lions that always sits on sauces trees along Narus valley or on the rock just as you enter the Apoka Park Headquarter. Right from Apoka Rest Camp other animals that can be seen include elephants, leopards, bush duikers, jackals, bush bucks, bush pigs, Kavirondo bush babies, buffaloes and much more.
Practical Tips
Wildlife is most active in the Narus Valley during early mornings and late afternoon – 6AM and 4PM are optimum times to set off on game drives. You are advised to use a ranger at all times. They will help you spot some of the park’s lions that may be sitting on the valley’s various rocks. Other wildlife includes elephants, leopard, bush duiker, jackal, bushbuck, bush pig, Kavirondo bush baby, buffalo and much more.
Kidepo Valley Scenic Drive
Though wildlife is scarce in the arid Kidepo Valley, the hour-long drive to Kanangorok Hot Springs passes some magnificent landscapes. North of Apoka, beyond the river crossing, the road passes between rock outcrops and hills before descending into the Kidepo Valley, crossing the Kidepo Sand River and traversing open plains that extend past Kanangorok Hot Springs towards mountains across the Sudanese border. This is the part of the park where ostriches are most commonly seen.
Animals to See in the Park
Kidepo Valley National Park is blessed with a number of wildlife species that include the cape buffaloes, lions, zebras, gazelles, hyenas, cheetahs, crocodiles, wild dogs that usually come from southern Sudan and go back after some time. Kidepo offers a totally unique Uganda safari experience. Some of the animals not to miss include elephants, jackals, giraffes, hartebeests plus a number of bird species that include barbets, vultures, eagles and many others.
The park is notable for a number of animals that are not found anywhere else in Uganda including Cheetahs, Ostriches and bat-eared foxes.
Five primates have been recorded in the park including the localized Patas monkey. It also has large concentrations of elephants, zebras, bushbucks, buffaloes and a number of 20 predators including Lions, Leopards and hyenas .There’s also a variety of mustelids, genets, mongooses and small cats.
Twelve antelopes are found in Kidepo and they include the greater and lesser kudu, Guenther’s dik- dik, and mountain reedbuck which occur nowhere else in Uganda. Others are Jackson’s Hartebeest, Eland, Bushbuck, common duiker, Klipspringer, Oribi, Defassa waterbuck and Bohor reedbuck. The park also supports populations of elephant, Burchell’s Zebra, Warthog, Bush pig and buffalo. The black rhinoceros recently became extinct in kidepo.It’s also a good bird – watching destination, with a recorded number of 463 birds which includes endemic birds,%6 raptors including the pigmy falcon and Kidepo “specials” which are restricted to the park.
Most of the wild animals in the national park are easily seen in the Narus valley because it’s the only place that usually has water even during the dry season therefore the major herbivores usually keep around this area to feed on fresh grass and the major predators like the lions and hyenas also stay in the valley to hunt what they will have for their meals.