Lake Mburo National Park

Lake Mburo

Lake Mburo National Park is located in Kiruhura District in the Western Region of Uganda, about 30 km east of Mbarara and about 240 km by road west of Kampala.

This is one of the largest five lakes that are near the wetlands, and it accounts for only 20% of this unique lake found in western Uganda. The park covers only 370km² yet it has 5 lakes within. It’s situated between the Cities of Masaka and Mbarara taking you about 4 hours by road from the Capital City, Kampala, to get there.

Within the park there are still culturally significant locations, such as Rubanga, where sacrifices were once made to the gods, Ruroko is where the semi-mythical Bachwezi lived, and Kigarama was where the pages (servants) of the king used to stay.

Wildlife & Geography

The park hosts zebra, hippopotamus, impala, warthog, common eland, African buffalo and over 300 bird species. Predators may include the lion, leopards, hyenas, genets, civets, jackals and serval cats, among others.

Lake Mburo national park has got a tropical climate and is situated in the Ankole southern climatic zone. The lake also lies within the rain shadow area that is between Lake Victoria and the Rwenzori Mountains. The park has got two seasons including the dry and wet seasons that receive the bi-modal low rainfall that ranges between 500 and 1000mm. the rainfall also tends to be so erratic as well as unreliable, that causes the low pastures which affects the wildlife behaviours that includes the birds and creates the demand on the park by the known local pastoralists. The temperatures here also range between 23-25 degrees and evapotranspiration of the areas in the northwest, north and in the northeast to the east ranges from 450 to 1600mm. Also, the areas in the south and in the southwest of the national park always experience lower evapotranspiration that ranges between 1300 to 1450mm.