• Kafue

    The Kafue National Park is one of the largest in Africa, covering almost 14,000 square miles. The northern section of this park serves as the perfect location for camps with its remote and diverse wilderness. The northernmost sector is drained by two perennial rivers, the Lunga and Lufupa. Both serve as important tributaries of the Kafue River for which the park is named.

    The Lunga drains the northeastern section and beyond its narrow strip of lush riverine forest the landscape is patterned with broad-leafed woodland, open plains, floodplains, and island thickets. The Lufupa by contrast enters the park in the northwest and forms the Busanga Swamp. This papyrus dominated wetland gives way to the vast floodplain of the Busanga Plains, a seasonally inundated grassland dotted with tree islands and fringed by stands of broad-leafed miombo woodland.

    Birdlife is abundant and includes many species that do not occur elsewhere in southern Africa. The plains provide good concentrations of both Wattled and Grey Crowned Cranes, as well as floodplain specialists like Rosy-throated and Fulleborn’s Longclaws and Locust Finch. The riverine woodlands of the Lunga harbor exciting species such as Black-throated Wattle-Eye, Bohm’s Bee-eater and Schalow’s and Ross’s Turacos. Zambia’s only endemic bird species, Chaplin’s Barbet, is almost entirely restricted to the Kafue system and can also be found at Lunga where it favors fruiting fig trees, but perhaps the biggest thrill is to be found in the diversity and abundance of nearly 500 recorded species.

    With more than 150 species recorded, mammals are equally diverse. The Busanga Plains, provide fantastic concentrations of common species like puku, lechwe, buffalo, and wildebeest, but also comparative rarities not easily viewed in many places in southern Africa such as roan, oribi, and Lichtenstein’s hartebeest. A high density of lion dominates the predator guild on the plains while species like cheetah and wild dog utilize those areas where lion are not present. Leopard and elephant are better viewed at Lunga where the woodlands provide both cover and foraging opportunities. Here as well, puku and wildebeest, together with impala are common, with some more unusual species such as tree hyrax and yellow baboon also occurring.


    Click to learn more about the camps found in the Kafue National Park area