Akagera National Park
To many who visit Rwanda, the Akagera National Park is a surprise after the steep and cultivated terrain that characterizes the rest of the country. Located in the east along the relative low altitude of the Rwanda/Tanzania border, Akagera is a beautiful reserve protecting landscapes more commonly seen in Kenya and Tanzania.
The park protects a mosaic of typical African acacia and bush savannah, patches of open grassland and numerous swamp-fringed lakes that follow the meandering course of the Akagera River.
The varied scenery is complimented by a good number and range of big game. Although the animal populations dwindled immensely during the 1980s due to extensive poaching, the numbers are once again beginning to increase. Herds of Elephant and buffalo are most likely to be seen when they emerge from the dense patches of woodland to drink at the many lakes and lucky visitors may be fortunate enough to stumble across a lion, leopard or spotted hyena.
Akagera National Park is also home to more than a dozen types of antelope, with the handsome chestnut-coated impala the most common, and frequent sightings of the world’s largest antelope, the Cape Eland. Giraffe and Zebra are also frequently seen in open woodland. Akagera is most famous for its vast number of bird species as the varied landscapes play host to a whole range of different habitats.
Special features at Akagera National Park include:
- Birdlife: The various bird species at Akagera include the majestic Fish Eagles – the king and queen of Africa’s waterways. Lining the lakes are some of the continents densest concentrations of water birds – storks, egrets, ibises, plovers, sandpipers, kingfishers and herons. Marshes: localized papyrus specialists such as the red, yellow and black papyrus gonolek, the secretive blue-headed coucal and the bizarre shoebill stork – one of the continents most sought after African birds.
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