Visit Semliki Wildlife Reserve, Uganda

Semliki is Uganda's oldest wildlife reserve and set in an area of outstanding scenery in the Albertine Rift Valley.

To the north is Lake Albert whilst to the east woodland climbs the steep Rift Valley wall. On the western horizon are the Congolese Blue Mountains and in the south a spur of hills climb up to the ice-capped peaks of the Ruwenzori Mountains.

The majority of the reserve is open acacia woodland and grassland whilst patches of gallery forest border the rivers.

Wildlife of Semliki

The game populations in the reserve were at one time enormous but the poaching and hunting that occurred during the civil war and throughout the 1980s saw the numbers plummet. However, since the early 1990s the reserve has been protected and although the numbers do not yet equal those of the reserve's heyday, they are increasing rapidly.

Ugandan kob are now commonly seen along with reedbuck, waterbuck, bushbuck and buffalo. Elephant are also present and lion appear to be re-colonizing the reserve from over the Congolese border, including the large-maned lion for which the reserve was once famous. The gallery forest is home to a variety of primates including chimpanzees, black-and-white colobus and red-tailed monkeys.

The shore of Lake Albert and the swamps that surround it are home to a variety of common and rare water birds including shoebill storks and colonies of red-throated bee-eaters.