kidepo valley national park at a glance:

Size: 1,442kilometers squared. Location : Karamoja Region : Altitude :914meters and 2,750meters, gazetted into a national park in the year 1962 and currently hosts 80 species of mammals and 476 species of birds

The park contains two seasonal rivers - Kidepo and Narus - which disappear in the dry season, leaving just pools for the wildlife.The local communities around the park include pastoral Karamojong people, similar to the Maasai of Kenya, and the IK, a hunter-gatherer tribe whose survival is threatened. Kidepo Valley National Park lies in the rugged, semi-arid valleys between Uganda's borders with Sudan and Kenya, some 700kilometers from Kampala.

Gazetted as a national park in 1962, it has a profusion of big game and hosts over 80 mammal species as well as around 476 bird species. Kidepo is Uganda's most isolated national park, but the few who make the long journey north through the wild frontier region of Karamoja would agree that it is also the most magnificent, for Kidepo ranks among Africa's finest wildernesses.

From Apoka, in the heart of the park, a savannah landscape extends far beyond the Gazetted area, towards horizons outlined by distant mountain ranges. During the dry season, the only permanent water in the park is found in wetlands and remnant pools in the broad Narus Valley near Apoka These seasonal oases, combined with the open, savannah terrain, make the Narus Valley the park's prime game viewing location.

Wild life Data in kidepo valley National park

Due to conservation efforts by the Uganda wildlife Authority and neighboring communities, Kidepo's elephant population has surged to between 650 and 1000 today from around 200 in the mid 1990's, The African Buffalo population is now estimated at 10,000-15,000. The Rothschild Giraffe is very common more than 50 individuals have been born from the bottleneck of the mid 1990's of only three recorded individuals with others supplemented by translocation other areas of the country. There is a whopping 476 bird species population, the most notable ones are the Ostrich, secretary bird, northern carmine bee eater, little green bee eater, Abyssinian scimitar bill and the isabelline wheatear