South Luangwa National Park
The natural beauty, variety and concentration of wildlife make this huge 3494-square-mile (9050 km2) park one of the finest in Africa. Game is so prolific Luangwa is called “The Crowded Valley.” The park has one of the highest concentrations of elephant on the continent.
South Luangwa is home to savannah, wetland and forest animals. The southern regions are predominantly woodland savannah with scattered grassy areas. Leopard, kudu and giraffe are numerous. To the north the woodlands give way to scattered trees and open plains where wildebeest and other savannah animals dominate the scene.
Thornicroft’s giraffe are indigenous to the park. Lion, hyena, buffalo, waterbuck, impala, kudu, puku and zebra are plentiful. Small herds of Cookson’s wildebeest may be seen. This is the best park in Zambia to see hippo completely out of the water. A few black rhino are present but are seldom seen. Leopards are most commonly sighted July-October and are frequently seen on night game drives. We saw at least one on each night drive during my recent visit.
Hippos and crocs abound in the muddy Luangwa River, a tributary of the Zambezi which runs along much of the park’s eastern boundary and then traverses the southern part of the park.
Over 400 species of birds have been recorded, including shoebills, fin foots, sacred ibises, saddle-billed storks, yellow-billed storks, Egyptian geese, spur-winged geese, fish eagles, crowned cranes and long-tailed starlings. The best time for bird watching is November-April.
A real advantage of this great park is that visitors can experience day and night game drives in open vehicles as well as participate in walking safaris ranging in length from a few hours to three or more days.
In the central eastern part of the park, you can see lion, African wild dogs, civet, buffalo, wildebeest, common waterbuck, greater kudu, puku, impala, crocs, hippos mating and fighting, Thornicroft’s giraffe, elephant, zebra, monitor lizard, warthog, and the everpresent baboons and vervet monkeys. Just before sunrise, elephants can sometimes be seen crossing the Luangwa River.
Related Travel Information
Luambe National Park
This undeveloped, 99-square-mile (254 km2) savannah and woodlands park is located just northeast of South Luangwa National Park. Luambe has many of the same species and features of South Luangwa National Park, but lacks first-class tourist facilities to accommodate visitors.
North Luangwa National Park
As the name implies, this largely undeveloped 1780-square-mile (4636 km2) park lies north of South Luangwa National Park in the upper Luangwa Valley.
Mark and Delia Owens, coauthors of Eye of the Elephantand Cry of the Kalahari, are conducting wildlife research here and are working to reduce poaching and create an infrastruc¬ture to attract tourists.
The park lies between the 4600-foot- (1400 m) high Muchinga Escarpment on the west and the Luangwa River on the east, with altitudes ranging from 1640-3610 feet (500-1100 m). Vegetation includes miombo woodland, scrubland and riv¬erine forest.
Wildlife includes lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, zebra eland,
Night Game Drives
There is no better park in Africa for night game drives than South Luangwa. The night game drive starts out slowly. Sightings on the night game drives included spotted Lions, leopards, hyena, Pel's fishing owl, several more leopard and lion, and a number of genet and civet.
Wildlife seen on one week's safari to South Luangwa included baboon, buffalo, bushbuck, civet, eland, elephant, large-spotted genet, Thornicroft's giraffe, hippo, honey badger, spotted hyena, impala, greater kudu, four leopard, over 20 lion, puku, vervet monkeys, warthog, common waterbuck, African wild dog, gnu, Burchell's zebra, banded mongoose, white-tailed mongoose, crowned crane, African
Kafue National Park
Kafue National Park is one of the largest in Africa, covering 8687 square miles (22,400 km2), making it two and one-half times the size of South Luangwa National Park and half the size of Switzerland.
Kafue has the largest number of different antelope spe¬cies of any park in Africa. However, game is more difficult to see here than in South Luangwa, since much of Kafue, especially the southern area, is clothed with a double-canopy forest. It is seldom visited by international travelers.
The southern and central parts are open all year while the northern area is only open during the
Omo National Park
Omo National Park is situated at the south-west on the west bank of Omo River. This park is 870km south-west of Addis Ababa, covering an area of approx 4,070 sq km
Omo National Park is home for buffalo, elephant, giraffe, cheetah, lion, leopard, zebra, kudu, hartebeest, oryx, Anubis baboon and many other animals. Over 306 species of birds exist in this national park. This is also a wonderful area for visiting local peoples and experiencing their cultures.
The park is not easily accessible. The park HQ is 75km from Kibish settlement. However, a new airstrip is available close to
