Wildlife Reserves in Uganda
Uganda, known as the Pearl of Africa, offers far more than its famous national parks. A handful of lesser-known wildlife reserves round out the country’s protected areas, each with its own landscape and species mix. Here’s a guide to three worth knowing.
Matheniko-Bokora Wildlife Reserve
Matheniko Wildlife Reserve sits in Uganda’s remote northeast, in the Karamoja region near Moroto district, adjoining the neighboring Bokora Wildlife Reserve. Established in 1964 on land once used for hunting by the Karamojong people, the reserve covers 1,520 square kilometers along the Karamoja Plateau, close to the Uganda-Kenya border and the edge of the Great Rift Valley.
The reserve holds leopard, giraffe, gazelle, antelope, cheetah, lion, buffalo, Uganda kob, duiker, zebra, monkey, baboon, and hyena, among other species. Birdlife includes the African hill babbler, eastern bronze-naped pigeon, Egyptian vulture, lemon dove, cattle egret, black-throated wattle-eye, and black-headed plover. Its dry grassland, scattered hills, and desert-adjacent terrain make it a strong destination for wildlife viewing, birdwatching, and community-based tourism away from Uganda’s more visited parks.
Semuliki Wildlife Reserve
Semuliki Wildlife Reserve sits in Bundibugyo district, western Uganda, about 411 kilometers from Kampala. It’s known for the Sempaya hot springs, split into separate male and female sites, where water reportedly reaches close to boiling point, alongside the Semuliki River and dense tropical forest.
Wildlife here includes baboon, leopard, buffalo, lion, hyena, mongoose, sitatunga, pygmy antelope, reedbuck, serval cat, forest hog, red-tailed monkey, black-and-white colobus monkey, bush duiker, rock hyrax, tree hyrax, klipspringer, squirrel, side-striped and black-backed jackal, and bush pig. Bird species include the red-billed hornbill, piping hornbill, African grey parrot, white-crested hornbill, shoebill stork, Ross’s turaco, crested malimbe, Maxwell’s black weaver, red-billed dwarf hornbill, Ituri batis, red-eyed puffback, Nkulengu rail, yellow-throated cuckoo, black-winged starling, Congo serpent eagle, and red-thighed sparrowhawk.
Aswa-Lolim Wildlife Reserve
Aswa-Lolim Wildlife Reserve sits in the Amuru district of northern Uganda, just north of Murchison Falls National Park, roughly 305 kilometers by road from Kampala. Its name comes from the Aswa River, alongside a second waterway called the Lolim. Sitting at about 769 meters above sea level near the Albert Nile, the reserve shares much of Murchison Falls’ habitat, and wildlife regularly moves between the two.
The reserve was established in 1959 but lost its protected status in 1972 under Idi Amin’s government, a period that saw much of its land taken over for farming. In 2010, the Uganda Wildlife Authority began restoring the reserve, handing its management to a private group, the Aswa-Lolim Wildlife Association. Today the landscape is a mix of dry grassland, papyrus wetland, and pockets of light woodland.
Wildlife recorded in the reserve includes lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard, crocodile, chimpanzee, hippopotamus, Nubian giraffe, Jackson’s hartebeest, Uganda kob, sitatunga, warthog, bushbuck, waterbuck, hyena, monkey, and oribi. Birdlife is a particular strength here, with the Abyssinian ground hornbill, blue-headed coucal, swamp flycatcher, African fish eagle, silverbird, Senegal thick-knee, Goliath heron, malachite kingfisher, African jacana, yellow-fronted tinkerbird, black-billed barbet, giant kingfisher, black-headed gonolek, Denham’s bustard, speckle-fronted weaver, shoebill, osprey, African quailfinch, piapiac, and a range of weaver species all recorded in the reserve.
