Tourist Safari Attractions in Kidepo Valley National Park
Bird Watching
Kidepo National Park has proven a life time memory to great birders, internationally due to her endless list of unique birds she has to offer. At Apoka Rest Camp and park headquarters overlooking the shallow, southern Narus Valley offers a good spot for your Kidepo birding tour. The Silverbird and small bands of Yellow-billed Shrike are among the attractive species that frequent the thorny trees around the camp. At the edge of the camp exists a small permanent water hole, that attracts swallows and a variety of seed eaters among which is the Yellow-rumped Seedeater.This spot is always visited at night by the Four-banded Sandgrouse, Elephants, Buffaloes and occasionally the Lion.
Along the normally dry stream bed adjacent to the camp, along the track to Amok lodge in the rank grass,, duel the African Moustached and Broad-tailed Warblers, Clapperton’s Francolin, Black Coucal, Marsh Tchagra and Crimson-rumped Waxbillood and on a good may be seen.
Key Species of Birds
Vinaceous Dove, Hoopoe, Long-tailed and Standard-winged Nightjars, Mosque Swallow, Nubian Woodpecker, Pygmy Falcon, Ruppell’s and Superb Starlings, Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Little Weaver and Red-cheeked Cordon-bleu.White-bellied and Hartlaub’s Bustards, Eastern Pale Chanting Go-shawk, Green-winged, Orange-winged and Red-winged Pytilias Yellow-necked Spurfowl, Bruce’s Green Pigeon, Rose-ringed Parakeet, Kori, Ethiopian Swallow, Pied, Isabelline and Heuglin’s Whea-ters, Fox Kestrel, Singing Bush lark, Stone Partridge, Clapperton’s and Heuglin’s Francolins, Violet-tipped Courser, Black-headed Plover, Abyssinian and Rufous-crowned Rollers, Abyssinian Ground, Four-banded Sand Grouse, OstrichRed-winged Lark, African Grey Flycatcher, White-faced Scoops Owl, Slate-coloured Boubou, Fan-tailed Raven, , Little Green Bee-eater, Eastern Yellow and Jackson’s Hornbills, Red-fronted and Black-breasted Barbets, Karamoja Apalis, White-bellied Tit ,Brown-backed Woodpecker, Superb Starling, Red billed Oxpecker, Foxy and Red pate Cisticolas, , Mouse-coloured Penduline Tit, Northern White-crowned and Yellow-billed Shrikes Eastern Violet backed, Brown-rumped Bunting ,Pygmy and Beautiful Sunbirds, Rufous and Chestnut Sparrow, Yellow-spotted Petronia, White-headed and White-billed Buffalo Weavers, Grey-capped Social and Speckle-fronted Weavers, Black-bellied and Black-faded Waxbill, African Swallow-tailed Kite, Steel-blue and Strawtailed Whydahs, White-browed and Chestnut- crowned Sparrow Weavers,
Game Viewing
Kidepo National Park has a great diversity of animal species than other parks. In 1971, 80 species of mammals were listed 28 of which were not known to occur in any other Ugandan park. Among the Carnivore species unique to Kidepo and only Karamoja region include the bat-eared fox, striped hyena, aardwolf, caracal, cheetah and hunting dog. Kidepo suffered the with poarchers during the Amin era and is still recovering from years of poaching that left some game herds depleted. Striped Hyena, Lesser Kudu, Grant’s Gazelle and Beisa Oryx have not been seen at all in recent times and are presumed to be locally extinct. Elephant, burchell’s zebra, bush pig, warthog, rothschild giraffe, cape buffalo, eland, bush buck, bush duskier, defassa water buck, bohor reed buck, jackson’s hartbeest and oribi are some of the other large game herds as well as: lion, common zebra, leopard, Buffalo,several small cats,Kangoni, spotted hyena, black-backed jackal and side-striped jackal-commonly seen. Five species of primate are found in the park- the Kavirondo bush baby being en-demic. Oribis is abundant in the Narus Valley, whilst the dry thorn thickets in the north are home to Guenther’s Dik Dik. Senegal Galago may be found in the rest camp at night and the common White-tailed Mongoose but are more likely to be found on a night drive. Kidepo also has a very rich and diverse reptile fauna.
You have high chances of viewing tree climbing lions that always sits on the rock just as you enter the Apoka Park Headquarter or sit on sauces trees along Narus valley.