The Hippo or Hippopotamus is one of the animals we can pretty much guarantee you to see if your safari in Uganda takes you to Queen Elizabeth National Park, Murchison Falls National Park or Lake Mburo National Park. The peculiar looking hippo is the 3rd biggest land-living mammal, for the curious number one is elephant and number two rhino. Its full name hippopotamus means “river horse” and as it shares the looks of a pig you could guess that it would be related to any of those but actually the closes related now living animal is whales. Hippos can get as old as 50 years and a fully grown male weights on average 1,5 tons.
As mentioned above it is not so tricky to see hippos in Uganda so if this is one of your favorites you are lucky. Hippos spend most of the day in water since they don’t have sweat glandes so your best chance is during the boat-cruises offered. With this said it is not uncommon to see one of them grazing on the savanna close to water even during day time. The hippos come out of the waters at dusk to spend the night grazing.
- In Queen Elizabeth National Park the boat-cruise on Kazinga channel lets you spot them cooling off in the water. Kazinga channel is a 36-km channel linking Lake George and Lake Edward and the 2 hour boat-cruise here is a great experience.
- In Murchison Falls National Park the 3 hour boat-cruise on the Nile that takes you to the base of the great falls lets you see hippos in abundance.
- In Lake Mburo National Park there is the chance for a boat-cruise on the lake from which you have the chance to see hippos.
