What are the Wildlife in Garamba National Park?
Question
Register Now
Thank you for registering with us, Welcome to Safari Questions and Answer family. Feel free to ask Questions, Answer Questions or post any opinion that you might have!
Answer ( 1 )
The establishment of the park followed the unique project known as the Gangala na Bodio Elephant Domestication Center, created in 1920 to domesticate elephants to work in agricultural fields.
Thousands of elephants still wander Garamba National Park in herds numbering into the hundreds. A program developed in the 1960s trained the enormous elephants to be saddled so tourists could experience the highly unusual elephant back safari.
In addition to elephants, spectacular viewing of buffalo and hippopotamus is also possible. The Congolese giraffe is a park native. Large and small antelope species can be seen in the park including bushbuck, waterbuck, oribi, Uganda kob, duiker and the nocturnal striped bongo who hides in the forests.
Predators that stalk the savannas include spotted hyaena, leopard, lion and the medium-sized, spotted serval with its large ears and housecat face.
A variety of diurnal primates call Garamba National Park their home, including the shaggy colobus, the Patas monkey with his white mustache, the little smiling vervet monkey, the bearded De Brazza’s monkey with his funky hair-do and the chatty chimpanzee.
Over 340 species of birds have been identified in Garamba. The richly colored red and blue carmine bee-eater can be seen congregating in huge flocks along the forested banks of the River Dungu. Meanwhile, if you see the subspecies of heron known as the cattle egret circling in the air, you’ll know a herd of buffalo is below them—they will land on the buffalo’s back and groom them.
Garamba National Park is leading the way in terms of state of the art conservation. One of the activities available at the park is to join the wildlife monitoring team and participate in their research into chimpanzees, lions and hyaenas. An amazing learning opportunity!