Best Parks in Uganda where you can find Leopards
The Best Places to see Leopards in Uganda – Where to find those graceful and elusive cats in the Parks of Uganda
The Best Places to see Leopards in Uganda – Leopards call many of the National Parks their home- they are even found outside of the parks in Uganda.
The chief characteristic of leopards is “Stealth.” Leopard stealth and their camouflage spotted coats to make it easy for them to blend in with their surroundings, and their prey does not know that they are there ahead of time.
If you see one in the African wild of Uganda, count your blessings. Leopards are solitary creatures and are quite elusive. They are the hardest to find much less to photograph. They often spend their days hidden in trees or caves and hunt at night and do not spend their days strolling through the savanna or forest, and they also avoid lions since lions hunt and kill leopards at times.
Hyenas are also a threat as they will often steal the kill of a leopard before the Leopard has the opportunity to stash it up in a tree.
As Leopards are solitary creatures except during mating – that is a brief period, rarely will you see Leopards in pairs and indeed there is no such as thing as a Leopard pride as there is with lions, it is no wonder that they are so hard to spot in the African Wild of Uganda- stealth with camouflage, solitary and fast,
With the Leopard’s ability to survive comes their ability to adapt to their surroundings. Their environment and they can adapt to rainforests, jungles, deserts, mountains, and savannah. Still, because they are solitary creatures, they do
not multiply as fast or as much as, for example, lions that live in a pride.
A leopard is strong and can pounce on prey from trees and, in turn, haul up the kill into a tree. Often you can smell that rotten carcass and just see it hanging from a tree where it is safe from hyenas and others – when they are near human settlements, they may attack dogs, livestock such as goats, and at times people. They are also good swimmers and will even hunt for fish and consume them- other things that they consume are insects, reptiles, and grazing animals-if they come across a carcass, they will also consume it.
Leopards can mate any time of the year, and female leopards will conceive the cubs about 90 to 100 days later- as far as the number of cubs, there can be up to about four of them. The mother finds a cave or a well-protected area to protect and raise her cubs. Even with that, the mortality rate of cubs is around 50%. The remaining surviving cubs stay with the mother until the cubs are 1 ½ to 2 years of age – during that time, they play with one another. They learn to hunt and how to survive on their own.
Leopards are nocturnal. That is why you do not often see them in the daytime (but more often on a nocturnal game drive). Males are 50% larger than females. Leopards do not roar, but they purr. They can take down prey that is three times larger than they are. Antelopes make up a large percentage of their kill.
Best Places to see Leopards in Uganda – here is a list of the Parks:
Kidepo Valley Park is one of those places where Leopards are on the increase, and the main reason is that Kidepo Valley Park is remote and unvisited. You can best see them here during the dry seasons on early morning game drives or in the late afternoon.
They differ from Lions in that they are usually alone, and maybe even more importantly, they are silent. You do not hear one roar like a lion.
Often Leopards are not seen since they use a lot of stealth in moving around. They do drag their kill up into a tree for safekeeping away from other predators such as hyenas.
Your Driver-Guide, along with the local Kidepo Valley Park Ranger, will make sure that you do not miss seeing them on a game-drive in this remote park in Uganda.
Murchison Falls National Park;
Murchison Falls Park is your best all-around Wildlife Park that can easily be accessed from Kampala. It is also one of the better parks where you can see Leopards. It is especially true during the morning game drives here that begin as early 6:30 am when dawn begins to break, and they finish the hunt.
Leopards will often take their prey that they have not finished up into a tree, which is their safe storage area where other carnivores will not be able to reach.
Leopards will most often be seen here. Since Leopards are so elusive and keep themselves isolated, you may not see them on every game drive. With that said, Murchison Falls National Park remains one of the best locations where you can most often see them in the Wildl.
Patience and understanding of how leopards live may come in handy as you are on your photographic hunt in Uganda’s Murchison Falls Park.
Queen Elizabeth National Park
Leopards are found in almost every section of Queen Elizabeth Park. However, Leopards are most often sighted on Wildlife Game Drives on the Kasenyi Plains in the northern part of the Park around Mweya. It is where most tourists go and in the less-visited Ishasha area of the park, which is in the southern area close to the Buhoma Area of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.
The Leopards are in Queen Elizabeth Park as they are in other parks found in Uganda. Seeing the Leopards is another story. You have to be patient and rely on your guide.
They do an outstanding job finding the leopards plus we use Uganda Wildlife Authority Rangers – between the two professionals, there is not much you will miss on a Game, including Leopards in Queen Elizabeth Park.
Lake Mburo National Park
Lake Mburo National Park has had success with Leopard sightings. One good reason is that here lions might be heard but are seldom seen. Those involved in Tourism in the park have made an extra effort during the game drives to see the elusive Carnivores.
It is especially true during the nocturnal Game Drives made famous here by the Luxury Mihingo Lodge, which does the best job in offering nocturnal game drives where several Leopards are seen.
If Leopards are what you are interested in, then we suggest a night or two in Lake Mburo where you can take a nocturnal game drive and see the Leopards on the prowl each night.
Lake Mburo- a place where you often see leopards.
There are many other locations such as the Wildlife Reserves where you can see Leopards, the above listed are the best Most every park in Uganda has them.
The Best Places to see Leopards in Uganda – if you specifically want to see Leopards while on Safari with us-Contact us.
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