Lion tracking in Queen Elizabeth National Park is a unique and an unforgettable experience which you can’t find in other Uganda’s national parks. Queen Elizabeth National Park is the most popular Uganda wildlife park situated in Western Uganda, approximately seven hours drive and one hour and thirty minutes by flight.
The park’s landscapes are green and filled with colorful wild flowers and it’s one of Uganda most enchanting savannah parks, very popular of its biodiversity which is encompassed of marvelous wildlife encounters. Among these include the tree climbing lion of Ishasha sector south of the park, chimpanzee tracking in Kyambura gorge, games drives, boat cruise along Kazinga channel, birding watching, nature walk, crater lake visit and Lion tracking experience.
Lion tracking experience only is done in Queen Elizabeth National Park in the northern section of the park “Kasenyi section” where under the guidance of researchers, trackers follow lions with lion calls tracing the signals of trackers which are tied on the neck of the lions. When on a lion predator tracking experience, trackers here can drive off truck to in order to find the predators whenever the signals would be directing.
Lion tracking experiential activity in Queen Elizabeth National Park involves following an individual or group of lions in order to learn more about their behaviour, feeding habits and social/group dynamics. To take part in the Lion tracking experience, one needs to book in advance. The experience cost $100 per person for international tourists. The park authorities give $10 of each booking to the Uganda carnivores program. The price doesn’t include park entrance. There is a limit to the number of people who may participate in the activity.
Tracking lions has three sessions in a day. There are early morning, afternoon and night sessions. Each session takes between two to three hours. If you are booked for any of the sessions, you need to arrive on time. The chief tracker or researcher will brief you about the activity and what to expect before you get into vehicles to look for the lions.
The experience has been made possible because of recent advancement in tracking technology. A radio collar is fitted on the dominant lioness of a pride. Lions are not chosen because they usually wander away from the group to mark their territories. Lionesses stay with the main group enabling researchers to monitor all the other lions including the cubs and alphas males.
Researchers prefer putting a collar on a lioness that is not pregnant, is old enough and in good health. Once she is identified, a tranquilizer is used to make the lioness unconscious before putting the collar around the lion’s neck. The lioness takes about 2 days to get used to the collar. While installing the collar, the researchers make sure that they are comfortable and loose to ensure that the cat doesn’t get stuck while passing through thick vegetation.
The battery powered collars send radio frequencies which are read by a GPS system to pinpoint the exact location of the lions every time the frequency is dialed. The tracking device makes a beeping noise which intensifies when the lion is close. Lions move a lot especially if the game is scarce. If there is enough prey, their range can be 40 square kilometers. In areas of food scarcity, their territory can reach up to 400 square kilometers. The radio collars enable researchers to track the lion prides movement and know if they are sick or under threat from communities living close to the park.
While tracking the lions, Researchers will share information about their biology, habitats and threats. You will learn that the lifespan of a lion is about 12 years and that females do most of the. The male’s role is to protect the family and ensure that no intruders come into their territory. A lioness gives birth to 3 cubs on average.
Lion tracking in Queen Elizabeth National Park is different in many ways from the usual game drives. During normal game drive, vehicles stay on designated tracks/roads. During lion tracking, the driver can drive off the main road and deep into the savanna depending on the location of the lions. Once the team is close to the lions, the driver switches off the engine to avoid chasing away the cats. If you are lucky, you might witness the researcher collecting DNA, blood, urine, saliva, ticks and other samples from the lions after the tranquilizer is applied.
This special wildlife adventure is categorized under experiential tourism which is currently running as a non profit adventure activity. Other experiential tourism activities in Uganda are now applied to Queen Elizabeth National Park. Such activities currently include lion (predators) tracking, Mongoose tracking, bird counts and Hippo census.
This unique adventure was set to wild enthusiasts who prefer getting so close to nature taking part in research, monitoring or even learning about the special fauna. Lion tracking sparkles for both lions and leopards digs deep in researching adventure with a lead of experienced researchers who guide on searching the lions with a guide of a combination of locators and radio collars drawing close to the cats.
Queen Elizabeth National Park hosts the highest number of lions in Uganda, however, on a usual game drive adventure scores to sight a lion are limited. Also, the leopard village is another predator tracking section, the village is one of communities in Queen Elizabeth Park where “UCP” operates experiential tourism, here, trackers can go for an in-depth understanding on how local co-exist with wildlife.
On an experiential lion tracking encounter a limited number of trackers as the adventure can continue to off truck drives join researchers from “UCP” using Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) safari vehicles. This adventure takes some good times and can last for about 3 hours, the experience is more of a study tour where one can be able to collect as much of the information, studying more on the troop’s behaviors and lifestyle.