Wilderness African Tours


Semliki National park



Semuliki is one of Africa's most biodiverse forests and is particularly noted for its varied bird population. This biodiversity is enhanced by its great age, for it is one of Africa's most ancient forests. During the dry conditions of the last ice age, 12-18,000 years ago, most of Africa's forests shrank and disappeared. Only a few patches like Semuliki and Bwindi survived, protecting forest species during the arid apocalypse until they could eventually emerge to recolonise a better, wetter world. Today the Semuliki valley is a hothouse for vegetation growth, with temperatures rising to a humid 30°C doused by an annual 1250mm of rain, mostly between March-May and September-December.

While Semuliki's species have been evolving for over 25,000 years, the park contains evidence of even older processes.
The low lying park lies on the rift's sinking floor, most of it just 670m above sea level. Large areas may flood during the wet seasons; brief reminders of the time when the entire valley lay at the bottom of a lake for 7 million years ago.

Flora and fauna


A spillover from the Ituri of the Congo basin, Semuliki contains 336 tree species. It also supports an exceptional variety of mammals, birds and butterflies. This is attributed to the forest's great age, its transitional location between central and eastern Africa, and to a variety of habitats, notably forest, swamp, and savannah woodland.

About 441bird species are recorded that represent 40% of Uganda's total of 1007. 216 of these are forest species - 66% of the country's forest birdlist - while the list is expanded by the riverine habitat and a fringe of grassland in the east of the park. 
The forest is home to 53 mammals, of which 27 are large mammals; duiker-sized and above, several are Central African species found nowhere else in East Africa. Hippos and crocodiles are found in the Semliki river while the forest is remarkably rich in primates. Chimpanzee, black and white colobus, central African red colobus, blue monkey, red-tailed monkey, de Brazza's monkey, vervet monkey, grey-cheeked mangabey, baboon, and Dent's mona monkey are present. Nocturnal primates include potto and bush baby.

Local people


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