Murchison Falls National Park (MFNP) is a

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

and managed by the Ugandan Wildlife Authority. It is in north-western Uganda, spreading inland from the shores of Lake Albert, around the

Victoria Nile The White Nile ( ar, النيل الأبيض ') is a river in Africa, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile, the other being the Blue Nile. The name comes from the clay sediment carried in the water that changes the water to a pale color. ...

, up to the

Karuma Falls Karuma Falls is a town in Uganda. Location Karuma Falls is on the Kampala–Gulu Highway, immediately south of where the highway crosses the River Nile. Karuma Falls is approximately , by road, northeast of Masindi and approximately , by road, ...

. Together with the adjacent Bugungu Wildlife Reserve and the Karuma Wildlife Reserve, the park forms the Murchison Falls Conservation Area (MFCA). As of 2022, the

East African Crude Oil Pipeline The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), also known as the Uganda–Tanzania Crude Oil Pipeline (UTCOP), is under construction and intended to transport crude oil from Uganda's oil fields to the Port of Tanga, Tanzania on the Indian Ocean. Onc ...

being built includes the construction of 10 oil well pads, a feeder pipeline, and a refinery in and around the Murchison Falls national park.

Location

The park straddles the Ugandan districts of

Buliisa Bulisa, also Bulisa, is a town in the Western Region of Uganda. It is the site of the headquarters of the Buliisa District. Neighborhoods within Buliisa Municipality include Wanseko and Kasenyi. Location Buliisa is located in the northwe ...

, Nwoya,

Kiryandongo Kiryandongo is a town in the Western Region of Uganda. It is the main municipal, administrative, and commercial center of Kiryandongo District. Location Kiryandongo is on the main Gulu- Masindi highway, approximately , by road, north-east of M ...

, and

Masindi Masindi is a town in the Western Region of Uganda. It is on the road between Kampala and the Murchison Falls National Park. It is the site of the headquarters of the Masindi District. Location Masindi is approximately northwest of Kampala, Ug ...

. The driving distance from

, the nearest large town, to the Kibanda area of the national park is about . This area is about , by road, north-west of

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...

, the capital and largest city of Uganda. The coordinates of the park near the Kibanda area are 02°11'15.0"N, 31°46'53.0"E (Latitude:2.187499; Longitude:31.781400).

History

The explorers

John Speke Captain John Hanning Speke (4 May 1827 – 15 September 1864) was an English explorer and officer in the British Indian Army who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa. He is most associated with the search for the source of the Nile ...

and James Grant were the first Europeans to visit the present day MFCA in 1862. It was more thoroughly explored by Samuel and

Florence Baker Florence, Lady Baker or Florica Maria Sas; Barbara Szász; Maria Freiin von Sass; Barbara Szasz; Barbara Maria Szász; Barbara Maria Szasz (6 August 1841 – 11 March 1916) was a Hungarian-born British explorer. Born in Transylvania (then Kingdom ...

in 1863–4. Baker named the falls

Murchison Falls Murchison Falls, also known as Kabalega Falls, is a waterfall at the apex of Lake Albert on the Victoria Nile in Uganda. At the top of Murchison Falls, the Nile forces its way through a gap in the rocks, only wide, and tumbles , before flowing ...

after the geologist Roderick Murchison, then the president of the Royal Geographical Society. Between 1907 and 1912, the inhabitants of an area of about were evacuated due to

sleeping sickness African trypanosomiasis, also known as African sleeping sickness or simply sleeping sickness, is an insect-borne parasitic infection of humans and other animals. It is caused by the species ''Trypanosoma brucei''. Humans are infected by two typ ...

spread by tsetse flies. In 1910, the Bunyoro Game Reserve was created south of the River Nile. That area roughly corresponds to the part of the MFNP that is in the districts of

, and

. In 1928, the boundaries were extended north of the river into the modern-day

Nwoya District Nwoya District is a district in Northern Uganda. Like most districts in Uganda, it is named after its main municipal, administrative and commercial center, Nwoya, the location of the district headquarters. Location Nwoya District is bordered by ...

. In 1952, the British administration established the National Parks Act of Uganda. The area described above became Murchison Falls National Park.

Overview

MFNP is Uganda's largest national park. It measures approximately . The park is bisected by the

from east to west for a distance of about . The park is the location of the Murchison Falls, where the waters of the

Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...

flow through a narrow gorge only wide before plunging . Also in the park, adjacent to the Masindi-Gulu Highway, are the Karuma Falls, the location of the 600 megawatt

Karuma Power Station The Karuma Hydroelectric Power Station is a 600 MW hydroelectric power project under construction in Uganda. When completed, it will be the largest power-generating installation in the country. Location The power station is located on the ...

, which will be Uganda's largest power station when it comes online circa 2022. As of 2022, the

being built includes the construction of 10 oil well pads, a feeder pipeline, and a refinery in and around the Murchison Falls national park.

Wildlife

MFCA and the adjacent Bugondo Forest Reserve have 76 species of mammals as well as Uganda's largest population of

Nile crocodile The Nile crocodile (''Crocodylus niloticus'') is a large crocodilian native to freshwater habitats in Africa, where it is present in 26 countries. It is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, occurring mostly in the central, eastern ...

s. There are 450 known bird species in the park, including the rare shoe-billed stork, dwarf kingfisher,

Goliath heron The Goliath heron (''Ardea goliath''), also known as the giant heron, is a very large wading bird of the heron family, Ardeidae. It is found in sub-Saharan Africa, with smaller, declining numbers in Southwest and South Asia. Description This ...

white-thighed hornbill The white-thighed hornbill (''Bycanistes albotibialis'') is a species of hornbill. It is found in Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, Sudan ...

and

great blue turaco The great blue turaco (''Corythaeola cristata'') is a bird species of the family Musophagidae. At in length, it is the largest species of turaco. It has predominantly grey-blue plumage with an upright blue-black crest around high. The male and ...

. Since 2005, the protected area is considered a

Lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

Conservation Unit. In 2010, it was estimated that only 250 giraffes were in the park. A population of 37

Rothschild's giraffe Rothschild's giraffe (''Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi'') is a subspecies of the Northern giraffe. It is one of the most endangered distinct populations of giraffe, with 1,399 mature individuals estimated in the wild in 2018. Taxonomy an ...

s was transferred from the north side of the Nile River to the south side in 2016 and 2017, when population was around 1,500.

Tourism

Murchison Falls National Park is Uganda’s most popular national park, receiving the highest annual number of visitors of any park in the country. Popular visitor activities include game drives, night drives, boat cruises to the delta and

waterfall, nature walks, bird watching and chimp tracking. Tourists visiting Murchison Falls National Park make a 5 hours 40 minutes drive from Kampala to reach the park. The park is also connected by daily domestic flights from Entebbe International Airport, to Kidepo Valley National Park and Queen Elizabeth National Park, which land at Pakuba Airstrip and Bugungu Airstrip. The park offers a range of tented camps and safari lodges to accommodate visitors.

References

External links

*
Overview at Uganda Wildlife Authority
{{authority control National parks of Uganda Buliisa District Kiryandongo District Masindi District Nwoya District Protected areas established in 1952 Important Bird Areas of Uganda Ramsar sites in Uganda 1952 establishments in Uganda Victoria Basin forest–savanna mosaic