Wildlife & Animals of Kafue National Park

Wildlife & Animals of Kafue National Park –  Zambia Safaris 2021 -2022

Wildlife & animals of Kafue National Park – The acentric Kafue national park  is Zambia’s largest and oldest national park Spanning an area of 22400km. The park attained its national park status (formation) in the 1950s. A huge fraction of the national park still remains uncharted thereby giving more access to the continuous development of the rich wildlife, plant and bird species. Kafue national park also derives its attraction and uniqueness from its size and the wild game that is holds.

All over the national park, the consistent Kafue River flows trailing a well-articulated course and its deviates and widens is areas where rocks seem harder and renders the flowing process impossible to go through them. The park has a wide array of activities that travellers can embark on, some of which include fishing, birding, game drives and canoe trips.

Covering such a large range area, with a variety of habits, wildlife in Kafue is rich and diverse, making for unbeatable game sightings without the crowds. The only absentees are rhino and giraffe.

Big cats are reasonably easy to spot. Lion are relatively widespread all over the park and leopard are very common throughout the forested areas of the park. Cheetah are found all over the Kafue National Park and cannot be found in South Luangwa or Zambezi National Parks, making them a big draw for visitors. As well as cats, there are dogs. The African wild dog population in Kafue is said to be the largest population of any national park in Africa. Packs can be found of both sides of the Kafue River and in almost all habitat types.

Wildlife and animals of Kafue National Park -There are populations of buffalo and elephant in the park. Sadly, much like most of Africa, elephant numbers have significantly reduced in the last 50 years due to poaching. Today’s elephant population is estimated to be 4,000 compared to 60,000 in the 1960s. However, things are beginning to improve; thanks to the hard work of park operators and Wildlife Authorities, game numbers and sightings are seeing an increase to levels not seen for many years.

An incredible 158 species of mammal have been recorded in Kafue National Park. This includes 20 different species of antelope, including the red lechwe, puku, oribi, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest, roan antelope and the rarely seen sitatunga antelope.

The park is also home to more elusive and unusual species such as pangolin, bush pig, aardvark, honey badger, wildcat, civet, serval, otter, monitor lizard and many mongoose species.